UAE cold calling rules, and how Vivin reaches buyers without calls.

The resolution, issued on 10 June 2024, applies to companies licensed in the UAE, free-zone companies included, that market products or services by phone. Its main conditions are these.

• Prior approval for telemarketing from the competent authority.
• Calls only from local numbers registered under the company’s UAE commercial licence.
• Marketing calls only between 9 am and 6 pm.
• Numbers on the Do Not Connect Register (DNCR), the national register supervised by TDRA, are off limits.
• A channel where consumers can ask for marketing information, with marketing contact limited to those consumers.
• Calls recorded, with the consumer told at the start, and a log of every marketing call kept.
• The company and the purpose of the call named at the start.
• No call back after a consumer says no on the first call, and no more than one retry a day, and two a week, after an unanswered or ended call.

The resolution defines telemarketing as calls to a consumer through a landline or mobile number, including marketing text messages and marketing messages through social media applications, and it defines a consumer as a natural person. Moving a pitch from a voice call to SMS or WhatsApp does not take it outside the rules. The text does not mention email or LinkedIn.

Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024 lists 18 violations by companies, with fines from AED 10,000 to AED 150,000 depending on the violation and whether it is a first, second or third offence. Telemarketing without prior approval starts at AED 75,000, and calling a number on the DNCR at AED 50,000. The authorities can also suspend activity for 7 to 90 days or cancel a licence. Individuals who make marketing calls from their own numbers face AED 5,000, rising to AED 50,000 for repeats, and can have their numbers cut.

Ask who holds the telemarketing approval, whose commercial licence the calling numbers are registered under, how numbers are screened against the DNCR, and who keeps the call recordings and call log. Get the answers in writing before any calls are made in your company's name.

We write to business decision makers by email and LinkedIn, in English or the buyer's language, with our identity and the reason for contact stated plainly. Messages go to people whose roles are relevant to your offer, and anyone who declines goes on the suppression list. We use phone outreach only in markets where our callers can work within the local rules, such as the US and Canada.

Onshore, the federal Personal Data Protection Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021, has been in force since 2 January 2022. The Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market run their own regimes: DIFC Law No. 5 of 2020 and the ADGM Data Protection Regulations 2021. Your legal adviser can tell you which applies to your campaign.

Rules differ by country. In Qatar, Law No. 13 of 2016 on personal data privacy forbids sending direct-marketing electronic communications to individuals without their prior consent, and each message has to name the sender, say it is direct marketing and give an address for opting out. If your buyers are in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman, we check the local rules before proposing any outreach.

We read the official English texts of both resolutions published by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism, the DNCR page of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority and the UAE Government portal on 4 October 2026. Take advice for your own activity, particularly in banking, insurance and securities, where the Central Bank of the UAE or the Securities and Commodities Authority oversees marketing calls.