Article 15 of the Saudi Product Safety Law

This article sets the duty to identify the parties in the supply chain, enabling the competent bodies to trace the product from its source to its destination.

• Who: the economic operator, meaning the manufacturer, the authorized representative, the importer and the distributor.
• What is required: to identify to the competent bodies:
  • any other economic operator that supplied it with the product (the previous link).
  • any other economic operator to which it delivered the product (the next link).
• When: if the competent bodies request this from it.

The obligation is tied to the competent bodies' request, and covers the two links adjacent to the operator in the supply chain. The text speaks of "another economic operator", so it does not address disclosing final consumers.

Under Article 1, the supply chain is all the stages a product passes through up to final use. This obligation makes it possible to reach the source of the hazardous product and those who received it, so that corrective actions can be applied effectively.

It is preceded by Article 14, which requires immediate reporting of a hazardous product, and followed by Article 16, which requires linking the operator's own traceability system, if it has one, to the Authority. Operators would therefore do well to keep organized records of suppliers and of the traders they sell to.