Consumer protection and company advertising

A company that supplies a good or a service, or advertises one, falls within the scope of Consumer Protection Law No. 1 of 2010. The general framework is on registering a company. The competition path is a separate page. The Law Office of Ali Barakat follows the question from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk.

The Council and the scope of the Law

Article 1 defines the Council as the Consumer Protection Council; the consumer as the natural or legal person who obtains a good or a service in order to benefit from it; the supplier as every natural or legal person who produces, imports, exports, distributes or sells a good or provides a service, whether as a principal, an intermediary or an agent; and the advertiser as every natural or legal person who advertises a good or a service, or promotes it, personally or through another, using any means of advertising. Inspection committees are the committees the Council forms and which follow up the implementation of this Law.

The Law applies to all natural and legal persons who manufacture, supply, sell, buy, market or import, or who provide services or advertise them, under article 3. It aims to guarantee and protect the consumer's basic rights against unlawful practices, to raise consumer awareness, and to prevent every act that conflicts with the rules on import, production or marketing, diminishes the usefulness of the good, or misleads the consumer, under article 2.

A council named the Consumer Protection Council is formed. It has legal personality and financial and administrative independence, and is attached to the Council of Ministers, under article 4. It is chaired by a person working full-time at the rank of a deputy minister, and is composed of members representing the Ministries of Industry and Minerals, Trade, Health, Agriculture and Communications, experts from the Ministry of Environment, the General Customs Directorate, the Tourism Board and the Central Organisation for Standardisation and Quality Control, representatives of the Iraqi Federation of Industries, the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce and an agricultural association, and three members from the private sector. The Prime Minister may add a representative of consumer-protection associations. The Council's tasks include setting policy, receiving and investigating complaints, and giving the violator a warning to remove the violation within seven days of notification, or starting a claim if the period ends and the violation continues, on the basis of the inspection committees' reports, under article 5. The Council may form inspection committees attached to it, based in Baghdad, with branches in the governorates of Iraq. The committees inspect the specifications of goods and storage conditions, notify the official bodies responsible for the safety of the good about spoiled goods, and submit reports to the Council.

The consumer's rights and the duties of the supplier and the advertiser

Article 6 gives the consumer the right to obtain information relating to the protection of the consumer's rights; complete information about the specifications of goods and the proper ways of using them, or of receiving the service, in the approved official form and language; proof of purchase stating the value, the date, the specifications, the number, the quantity, the type and the price; guarantees for goods whose nature requires such a guarantee, for the period agreed with the supplier, without additional expense; after-sale services according to the agreement; and freedom to choose the good or service for its price without interference by the supplier. If the information the article requires is not obtained, the consumer, and any person with an interest, may return the goods in whole or in part to the supplier and claim compensation before the civil courts for the harm.

Article 7 requires the supplier and the advertiser to ensure that the data, specifications and complete components are affixed, in particular the start and end of the good's validity and the country of origin, before the good is placed on the market or before sale, purchase or advertising; to comply with Iraqi or international standard specifications, the Central Organisation for Standardisation and Quality Control being the reference for this purpose; to adopt a trade name and a commercial address, to enter them in the registers the law requires, and to keep the approved records of the activity; to retain sale and purchase receipts and to produce them, or allow official bodies to inspect them, on request; not to promote, by any means of media, publication or advertising, a good or a service that does not meet the approved local or international standard specifications; and to state, on all correspondence, printed matter and advertisements, the trade name, the address and any legally adopted mark, if there is one. The supplier remains responsible for consumers' rights throughout the agreed guarantee period, under article 8.

What is prohibited in advertising and misleading statements

Article 9 prohibits the supplier and the advertiser from practising fraud, misleading conduct and deceit, and from concealing the true materials of the approved specifications; from using force or obstruction against inspection committees and representatives of official bodies, and from preventing them from performing their duties; from producing, selling, displaying or advertising goods and services contrary to public order or morals, or any goods on whose wrappers or packs the complete components, any warnings, and the start and end of validity are not clearly stated; from concealing, changing, removing or altering the date of validity; and from re-wrapping spoiled or expired products in packs that bear a validity date that is untrue and misleading. These prohibitions apply to advertising by any means, including electronic means, and do not stand in for recording the company or the merchant if that recording applies. The sanctions in article 10 are read from the official text of that article.

The office follows a reading from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk.

Legal basis and sources

1. Consumer Protection Law No. 1 of 2010 (Iraqi Legislation Database)

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01The Competition and Anti-Monopoly Law and the Competition CouncilCompetition and Anti-Monopoly Law No. 14 of 2010 and the Council of Competition and Anti-Monopoly Affairs: prohibited practices and mergers.
• 02An online shop and selling on social media: registration and obligationsSelling through an online or social-media shop: merchant or company registration and consumer-protection duties, with no invented licence.
• 03Obligations that recur after a company is recordedFinal accounts, the audit, the general-assembly meeting and copies sent to the Registrar, distinct from post-incorporation steps and from branch duties.
• 04The address of a company or branch, a lease and a title deedThe company's address in its contract, before the Registrar and in the commercial register; a lease or deed may evidence it. Not a real-estate page.
• 05Registering a company in Basra: which department is approached, and what differs from Baghdad?Registering a company when dealing in Basra under the federal Companies Law, followed from Baghdad.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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