A private company in Colombo 13 has been fined Rs. 100,000 by the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court for storing expired Ayurvedic medicines, cosmetics and other consumer goods, and ordered to have the seized stock destroyed immediately.
The company and its director pleaded guilty to all five charges when the case was taken up on Tuesday (4). The court imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on each of the two defendants for each of the five counts, bringing the total to Rs. 100,000.
The charges were brought under the Consumer Affairs Authority Act. They covered storing expired imported Ayurvedic medicines for sale alongside other goods, failing to maintain records on the disposal of expired products, and holding Ayurvedic medicines, scented soaps and cosmetics that carried neither a maximum retail price nor the importer’s details.
What the raid found
The case followed a special raid by the Consumer Affairs Authority on the company’s premises on May 20, during which officials recovered more than 640 expired Ayurvedic capsules and tablets.
Officers also uncovered more than 280 soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, empty cosmetic containers and other products that lacked the required labelling and mandatory product information. Nearly 920 items were sealed during the operation.
The authority urged the public to report traders selling expired medicines, substandard cosmetics or goods without mandatory product information by calling its 1977 hotline during office hours.
A pattern of enforcement
The prosecution is the latest in a run of Consumer Affairs Authority actions against the Ayurvedic and cosmetics trade, a segment where imported stock is often repackaged or relabelled before sale. The authority previously raided an unlicensed Ayurvedic cream plant in Matale that repackaged bulk product under its own label for sale in tourist markets.
The missing maximum retail price and importer details are more than a paperwork failure: without them a buyer cannot identify who brought the product into the country, which is the trail regulators follow when a cosmetic or medicine turns out to be unsafe.
Enforcement capacity remains uneven across the sector. The Private Health Services Regulatory Council said last week it lacks the staff to check private laboratories for expired dengue test kits, and has waited a decade for gazette approval of its monitoring powers.
