Starting tomorrow, new rules for the sale of mobile phones come into effect in Kazakhstan. Sellers will now be required to provide the buyer with the IMEI code before concluding a deal, as well as to pre-register it with state authorities. According to the relevant department, this innovation will help protect consumers from purchasing blocked or counterfeit devices with incorrect IMEI codes, reports infohub.kz.
However, not all entrepreneurs have welcomed the change with optimism. Dault Kazhiev, a businessman from the capital, expressed concern that the new requirements will slow down smartphone sales. According to him, the registration procedure with state bodies takes from seven to eight days, which negatively affects the store's operations. "It affected our work in terms of the registration time; the state bodies process the information and give us registration within 7-8 days. Because of this, it has certainly impacted our work. We are currently going through verification and not selling unverified phones. We only sell them after they pass registration," the entrepreneur said.
The relevant committee urges businessmen to be patient, noting that the verification procedure will speed up over time. Experts emphasize that the new rules are necessary to protect the domestic market from counterfeit mobile devices. "We received reports. There were cases when buyers took a phone and it did not work. And whether it was factory-made or not, it was hard to say. Such complaints were received," said Shakarim Khaidar, chief expert of the Committee for Consumer Rights Protection of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan.
The changes will affect not only regular stores but also marketplaces. They are now required to include in agency contracts with sellers a condition on mandatory verification of mobile devices for blocks and restrictions in the IMEI database. Otherwise, selling goods that do not meet technical regulation requirements will incur liability under Article 415 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, with fines ranging from 400,000 to 2.5 million tenge. Additionally, the new rules expand buyer rights: if a device that has not passed verification is sold, the buyer can demand a price reduction, free elimination of defects, reimbursement of expenses for their correction, replacement of the device, or a refund.