FEATURE / UAE

Bracewell ’ s Chris Williams and Amelia Bowring talk about the impact of new executive regulations under the UAE ’ s Consumer Protection Law .

Published on July 14 , 2023 , pursuant to Cabinet Decision No . 66 / 2023 , the Executive Regulations of Federal Law No . 15 / 2020 ( the Regulations ) will supplement the Consumer Protection Law 1 ( the Law ), filling in several gaps in this previously published Law .

The following outlines some of the key provisions of the Regulations that should be considered and provides guidance as to how the Law ’ s requirements will be applied in practice .

PROHIBITED CLAUSES Perhaps the most significant of the Regulations is Article 34 , which provides specific examples of conditions that are prohibited from being included in a contract between a supplier and consumer , supplementing the prohibition under Article 21 of the Law which bars “ any condition when contracting with the Consumer that would harm the latter .”

Article 34 of the Regulations offers a non-exhaustive list of 14 examples of prohibited conditions , including termination provisions and the existence of unilateral rights of a supplier versus a customer . These prohibited conditions are not only applicable to contracts between suppliers and customers , but extends to invoices and any other documentation relating to contracting with a consumer .

While the list included in Article 21 of the Law provides helpful guidance of what may be considered prohibitive , the list ’ s non-exhaustive nature and the general language used throughout the Law and the

Regulations leaves it open to interpretation as to whether a condition could be considered detrimental to a consumer .

ADVERTISING , INVOICING AND PRICING Articles 5 and 6 of the Regulations impose obligations relating to advertising , invoicing and pricing on suppliers , superseding the requirements set forth in Articles 7 and 8 of the Law .

Article 5 of the Regulations lists the three ways that explanatory information may be displayed : » writing the price on the commodity ( depending on its nature ); » affixing a label including the price on the commodity ; or » placing the price at the place of the service being provided .

Article 5 also prescribes that it should be expressly stated whether debit cards are accepted and any related discounts . Furthermore , the practice of including additional amounts to the value of a commodity where consumers use credit cards as a payment method is now prohibited under the Regulations .

Article 6 of the Regulations reaffirms that invoices must be provided by suppliers to consumers albeit it expands on the Law by listing particulars that must be included therein . Article 6 also prescribes that a supplier provide a consumer with a warranty document and , if a commodity or services are to be provided in phases , a supplier provide a consumer with a schedule of payments relating to the completion of each phase .

WARRANTIES , AFTER-SALES SERVICES AND SPARE PARTS Article 13 of the Regulations reinforces the existing warranty obligations provided pursuant to Article 10 of the Law . In particular , it provides the consumer the right to three options in the event that a

12 ISSUE 126 • OCTOBER 2023