Over 52,000 fakes seized in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi authorities seized more than 52,000 fake products in the first nine months of 2014 as part of an ongoing crackdown on trade and business fraud.

Officials said most of the items were imported from foreign markets and blamed the strong purchasing power of the country’s residents given its steadily expanding economy, the second largest in the Middle East.

But the number of the items seized this year was far below the record number of counterfeit products of nearly 142,000 impounded by law-enforcers in the emirate in 2013, according to the department of economic development (DED).

“We received 1,593 complaints and reports from the public in the first nine months of this year and our inspectors carried our 10,592 field visits to local markets…these visits resulted in the seizure of 52,673 fake products,” DED undersecretary Mohammed Omar Abdullah said after opening an anti-fraud fair in the capital on Tuesday.

He said the department is coordinating with the ministry of economy, the customs authorities and the police in the UAE to block the entry to fake products to the UAE markets, adding that the public should also contribute to anti-fraud efforts.

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