The Cairo Economic Court sentenced the legal representative of Petra Real Estate Marketing, Ahmed Fouad Ahmed, with a EGP 100,000 fine for falsely and misleading advertising for the sale of 102 residential units belonging to the cabinet .
The court obliged Ahmed to publish the verdict in two widespread newspapers, as well as pay all expenses, according to a statement by the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA).
CPA Chairman Atef Yacoub said in a press release on Saturday that the agency investigated a complaint filed by the Cabinet Workers Association against Petra Real Estate Marketing for advertising the selling of residential units in Al-Akhbar newspaper under the name of “Ministers Buildings Compound in Nasr City’s finest areas”.
Yacoub said that CPA summoned Petra to inquire on its marketing of 102 units belonging to the Cabinet Workers Association. The units were supposedly bought by an individual when he won a public bid announced by the association on 7 December, 2014, and Petra was marketing for him using the cabinet’s name.
Yacoub revealed that investigations discovered that the individual who won the bid gave the Cabinet Workers Association a check for 10% of the total value, according to the terms of the auction brochure. However, when the CPA sought to cash it, it found it was invalid.
The Central Housing Cooperatives Union was then notified and it issued a decision on 12 December to invalidate the entire bid, therefore de-authorising any entity from dealing with those units.
However, Yacoub added, defendant Ahmed Fouad Ahmed falsely and misleadingly marketed to consumers that residential units belonging to the cabinet were up for sale, which falsely increased consumers’ confidence to purchase the units. The marketing campaign hid the vital information that the bid was invalidated. Yacoub said that the act constitutes a punishable offense under the Consumer Protection Act No. 67 of 2006.
