At the direction of the Minister of Economy and Trade, Dr. Amer Al-Bassat, the inspection teams of the Consumer Protection Directorate intensified their field oversight operations throughout Lebanon.
A statement issued by the Ministry stated that these oversight campaigns resulted in the issuance of several arrest reports against a number of violators, for committing various violations that included: “monopolizing gas bottles,” “violating the official prices of gas and generators,” “manipulating prices in vegetable markets,” in addition to “failing to announce prices” and “cheating in the weights of food commodities and vegetables.”
In a related context, inspection tours were carried out in the Bekaa and Beirut regions in coordination with the State Security Service and the Ministry of Agriculture, where violations related to “exceeding the permissible profit percentages” and “lack of weights” were monitored. As for the north, the tours focused on the central vegetable market in Tripoli, which resulted in two arrest reports being organized against two wholesalers. 30 arrest reports were also referred to the Public Prosecution of Appeal in the North to take appropriate legal measures against these violators.
The Minister of Economy stressed that the Ministry is determined to continue to intensify its monitoring efforts in the markets and use all its available resources to prevent any “price manipulation,” “monopoly,” or “cheating,” out of its keenness to protect consumers’ rights and ensure market stability.
