Muscat:Online shopping has become quite popular among consumers in Oman. While the ecommerce industry has seen tremendous growth over the last few years, the sale of counterfeit products remains a huge problem for online shoppers. On Wednesday, the Public Authority for Consumer Protection carried out a massive crackdown on an online shopping store and seized fake products that was sold at knockdown prices in Oman.   

In a statement issued online, PACP said it found fake goods of international brands that were sold at competitive prices. “The authority’s anti-commercial fraud department has been able to discover fake goods of global brands which were being sold through an e-store for competitive prices.”

We cannot publicly name the company, says PACP

PACP, however, did not reveal the name of the online shopping store that has over 60,000 page views a month. “We received regular complaints from customers who purchased goods from this store. It became clear that all of these consumers had bought the goods [thinking they were original] from this e-store.” the statement said.  

“Companies or owners accused of engaging in activities that harm consumers cannot be named by the PACP. That’s not how we work. There is a legal process involved in it and it’s the court that decides,” an official from PACP said.

“After studying these reports, the PACP discovered that the devices were imitation goods and it does not fit market regulations, which led to suspicions regarding the source of these devices,” the statement added.

PACP also discovered the route from where this store was getting its fake goods from. “The team worked to follow the origin of the store’s products, which ranged from electronic devices, cosmetics, jewelry, perfumes, bags, books, and stationary among many other products, all of which were being sold for very low prices in comparison with their actual price in the market.

“The store turned out to be only a front desk, where another company would deliver the products from a warehouse which received its goods from a neighboring country,” PACP explained.

 According to PACP, samples of the counterfeit products were send to testing. “We also spoke to official dealers of these high end brands here and found out from them that these were fake products,” the statement added.