KUWAIT CITY, Sept 11, (KUNA): The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is leading an extensive campaign to eliminate counterfeit goods.

In a statement, the ministry said, “these goods are negatively affecting the economy because of its popularity and cheap prices and affecting the environment of the country and could harm consumers’ health,” pointing out that many official scientific studies have confirmed negative medical effects threatening consumers’ health because of the use of fake cosmetic products that mostly contain poor quality ingredients.

The campaign is monitoring the market for any abnormalities. It is monitoring the industrial sector for selling any fake items in clothes, shoes and bags. Also monitoring the Information Technology sector such as software programs and computer spare parts and any other fake products found in the market.

The ministry also has notified printing businesses and centres not to print slogans, signs or symbols to protect the authorship of copyrights and intellectual property from abuse.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry aims to protect companies and consumers from commercial fraud and piracy, which poses a great national economic risk. The ministry is applying its authority by the law to protect both the market and the consumer from the dangers of counterfeit goods.

Stating for the fact that piracy and selling fake products is a crime penalized by the law. Therefore, the ministry is giving merchants of counterfeit goods a three weeks’ notice to remove products off the market taking advantage of the deadline set by the ministry to avoid legal violation and goods expropriation.