Gifts from baby-milk agents to midwives

A question from a baby-milk agent who wants to promote his product by giving gifts to midwives in hospitals, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the gifts are forbidden if given in return for exclusively promoting a product with no advantage over others, and permitted if they only promote the company without influencing the midwives' decisions. ¹

The questioner said he runs a baby-milk agency and wants to promote his product by giving gifts to midwives in hospitals, adding that most milk companies do so and he cannot stay in the market otherwise; he asked whether this is allowed. ¹

The Department began by saying that giving gifts is recommended by consensus, quoting al-Baghawi and al-Nawawi. ¹ It said that if the company gives the midwives gifts in return for promoting its product exclusively, although it has no advantage over others and costs more, then giving and accepting the gift is forbidden as a form of bribery. ¹ If it gives them gifts only to promote itself, without pressuring them or influencing their decisions, giving and accepting the gift is permitted; it referred to decisions 145 and 249 of the Iftaa Council. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3843, dated 17 December 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.