Consumer protection in Libya

The main general legal basis is Law No. 23/2010 on Commercial Activity, including the amendment confirmed by Law No. 7/2023. The framework recognizes consumers' rights to safe goods and services, complete and correct information, free choice, proof of purchase, direct court action and participation through consumer societies. It also provides remedies such as repair, replacement, refund and repayment of service fees where the relevant conditions apply. The statutory consumer concept can cover a natural or legal person obtaining goods or services, with or without payment. Product and service information must state the nature, specifications, composition, warnings, origin, manufacture and use-by dates, intended use, producer and address, and price. Arabic is mandatory for this information. Prices should be visible, and a provider should disclose repair costs before carrying out the repair. On request, the provider should supply an account statement. Article 1319 provides a 10-day recourse period for electronic, door-to-door and workplace contracts. Defect rules allow the consumer to seek repair, replacement or a refund according to the legal conditions, and a contractual waiver of those protections is void. Clauses that improperly limit liability are also invalid. The law addresses defect notification, withdrawal, refunds and deceptive advertising, with penalties that can include at least one month of imprisonment and a fine of LD 500 to LD 1,000, with aggravation for repeat offences and dangerous or medicinal products. Keep the invoice, receipt or account statement, contract, advertisement, payment record, product or lot details, photographs and communications with the provider. The first practical contact is usually the seller or service provider. The Ministry of Economy and Trade lists a Consumer Complaint Center, consumer-awareness material and an Inspection and Consumer Protection Administration. Its public contact form requests a name, email address, subject and message. The reviewed material found no published general complaint fee or service deadline. The Ministry contact listed for Tripoli is +218213631313 and info@economy.gov.ly. Courts remain available for direct litigation. Consumer societies are contemplated by law, but nationwide current coverage was not established. The Competition and Anti-Monopoly Council handles competition matters and the boundary involving misleading advertising. Banking complaints remain sectoral: the Central Bank of Libya supervises banks, and individual banks may provide branch, email, form or complaint-unit procedures. Some bank procedures reviewed promise a response within 15 working days. A separate independent banking consumer ombudsman was not evidenced, although the Central Bank provides contact channels. Electronic transactions and digital payments fall under Law No. 6/2022, which also addresses electronic records, electronic signatures, e-commerce and personal-data protection. Telecom disputes are governed in part by Law No. 22/2010. A complaint-settlement committee and amicable resolution are available in the legal framework, and arbitration may be possible, but the detailed procedure was not verified. CIM Tawasul accepts telecom and internet complaints using a supported mobile number and a six-digit one-time password, then asks for the provider, service and problem type and allows status tracking. The reviewed public dashboard showed 73 complaints and none processed at that time; this was a snapshot, not a published service deadline. Air passenger protection has a specific sector framework under Decision No. 84/2024. An airline must publish a grievance mechanism. A passenger normally complains to the airline first and keeps the reference number, then may complain to the Aviation Transport Administration within 30 days. If the airline gives no response within 15 days, that is treated as acknowledgement. Care can include refreshments after three hours, a meal after four hours, and hotel accommodation and transport after six hours. Compensation for lost or damaged baggage is 350 to 1,131 SDR, where SDR means the Special Drawing Rights unit used for the stated compensation scale. Delayed baggage compensation is 20 SDR per day for domestic travel up to 100 SDR and 40 SDR per day for international travel up to 200 SDR. Payment for lost or damaged baggage is due within 30 days under the stated regulation. Force majeure can exclude compensation, but it does not remove the duty of care. Energy complaints mainly use the service-provider channel. GECOL publishes contact channels, including gecol@gecol.ly, and citizen outage-reporting channels were evidenced in 2026. Brega has a 24-hour reporting channel for fuel-station problems. No independent unified energy-consumer regulator, public fee schedule or general service deadline was found. The Food and Drug Control Center, known as FDCC, oversees food, medicines and biological and chemical products through inspection, sampling, rejection, withdrawals, warnings and citizen reports. The Ministry of Health Pharmacovigilance Center monitors adverse medicine effects. A product-safety concern should go to the FDCC or the relevant health authority, while a purchase refund or damages claim normally concerns the supplier or a court. Fraud rules cover counterfeit, expired, toxic or nonconforming goods, false descriptions, inaccurate quantities or origins, and deception about manufacture or payment. Suspected fraud can be reported to the Ministry, the relevant sector regulator, police, prosecution or a court. Regional access is uneven in the reviewed evidence, with Tripoli institutions most visible. Informal escalation through a provider's telephone line or social-media account may help obtain a response, but its legal force is weaker and less predictable than a documented formal complaint.