CACD 92/2306/2015

This case involved imported goods which failed customs tests as they did not provide required information in Arabic. The company was fined as they did not respond to requests to re-export the goods. It was wrongly argued they had not receive notification to re-export the goods, which was irrelevant as they had missed several deadlines to do this.

Background

A shipment was stopped by the Customs Department on behalf of a company. The Customs submitted samples to the laboratory after the merchant had pledged to wait for the tests results before disposing of the goods. The tests found some samples did not conform to the specifications as they did not mention required data in Arabic, including the validity period, the country of production and weight. The company did not respond to the customs request to re export the goods. The case was referred to the First Instance Customs committee.

The Committee issued a ruling convicting the owner of the company of smuggling and compelled him to pay a customs fee and a fine equivalent to the value of the shipment.