Seef: The Minister of Industry and Commerce has issued an order banning and selling products through pyramid scheme and network marketing. The action was a part of the initiative to discourage the promotion pf loyalty chain schemes for making profit.
Director of Consumer Protection at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Senan Ali Al Jabery said that the ministerial order was issued as response to complaints about such practices that aren’t suitable to laws and regulations in Bahrain, especially the consumer protection law.
The idea of the pyramid scheme and network marketing is to convince a person to buy a product and then convince others to buy and the chain continues, in which the first buyer gets more commissions if he has more members under him. The person also gets commissions for marketing for the company’s products.
The Director said that some companies following such operations have been contacted to correct their activities and adhere to the ministerial order. The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been approached to ask commercial sector such as hotels and hall renting companies to not allow meetings to promote these two types of marketing at their venues.
He said that the ministry has started certain administrative and legal procedures in this regards.
He called upon consumers to cooperate, asserting that the ministry will take the required procedures in cooperation with concerned bodies at the General Directorate of Anti-corruption and Economic and Electronic Security to stop such marketing.