On May 17, Kuwait’s Commercial Control and Consumer Protection Department seized 1,430 counterfeit goods at the Friday Market while conducting inspections in Al Farwaniyah Governorate that produced 22 enforcement reports and led to two shop closures. The campaign, run in coordination with the Ministry of Interior, focused on violations of a new cash transaction ban under Ministerial Resolution No. 32 of 2026, with counterfeit cases sent to the Commercial Prosecution, the department said.
The department’s tally from Al Farwaniyah listed 22 reports that covered misleading advertisements for services not actually provided and instances where private pharmacies failed to observe the prohibition on cash transactions for certain activities. Officials closed one outlet for selling expired herbal products and a second for refusing to cooperate with inspectors performing their duties. Two further notices addressed businesses operating without a license or engaging in activities that fell outside the scope of their approved permits.
Emergency inspection teams working with the Ministry of Interior apprehended a health institute operating in breach of the ministerial resolution on cash transactions. The authorities identified additional violations at the same establishment through the Interior Ministry, resulting in joint legal proceedings by both bodies. The department has instructed that all such files move forward for full prosecution.
Inspectors at the Friday Market documented each of the 1,430 seized counterfeit items before transferring the complete case files to prosecutors. The department described the action as part of its series of intensified campaigns across multiple governorates aimed at improving regulatory compliance. These efforts have targeted both counterfeit distribution and administrative breaches in commercial outlets.
The operation forms part of a continuing pattern of market oversight by the ministry. In January the Commercial Control Department confiscated 1,828 counterfeit items including perfumes, accessories, bags and leather products from two shops in Salmiya, according to a Times Kuwait report. A February campaign yielded around 800 counterfeit women’s shoes and handbags bearing fake international trademarks, Arab Times reported.
Counterfeit trade persists as a notable issue within Kuwait. The Organised Crime Index 2025 assigned the market a score of 5.50 and observed that authorities have seized large volumes of fake electrical products, clothing and luxury items in recent years. A separate 2025 OECD-EUIPO analysis of global fakes found that postal services accounted for 58 percent of seizures by volume while sea freight carried a higher share of total value.
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