Previously protection had been granted under Qatar Law No. 2/1999 on Combating Commercial Fraud. Traditionally, save for the 1999 law, consumers had, in the event of faults or malpractice, little or no recourse against suppliers and, thus, advertisements informing the consumer about products became inflated with over-exaggerated descriptions. Other underhand practices also appeared, such as the sale of defective or sub-standard goods, misrepresentation of prices (influencing inflation) and negligence over safety standards. It became necessary, therefore, to introduce statutory measures to bring suppliers to the Qatar market into line and to make them more accountable to their consumers. The 2008 Consumer Protection Law came at a time when other countries in the GCC were also trying to tackle consumer protection issues and similar laws were enacted at around the same time in the UAE and Syria.