Can You Record A Call In The UAE (And Use It In Court)?

Legality of recording a call

The UAE Penal Code criminalises conduct that violates private or family life, including the recording or transmission of private telephone conversations, except in cases permitted by law or where the relevant person consents. In practical terms, you should assume that recording a phone call without the other party’s consent exposes you to criminal risk, even if you are a participant in the call.

Consent sits at the centre of the UAE position on call recordings. The Penal Code is framed around the absence of consent (subject to limited lawful exceptions), so in practice the safest and most defensible course is to obtain express agreement before recording, particularly where a dispute is foreseeable. That avoids later arguments about whether consent can be inferred, and it avoids the recording itself becoming a separate point of attack.

A common scenario is a business call centre notice such as “this call may be recorded”. If the notice is clear, and the caller continues the call, the recorder may argue implied consent. That may reduce risk in practice, but it is not as robust as explicit consent, particularly if the notice was unclear, rushed, or disputed.

Can a recording be used in court?

For civil and commercial disputes, the relevant framework is Federal Decree-Law No. 35 of 2022 on Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions (“Evidence Law”). The Evidence Law recognises “electronic evidence” broadly, covering information generated, stored, transmitted, received or copied by information technology, provided it can be retrieved and presented in an understandable form. The statute’s examples include electronic correspondence and modern means of communication, and it is framed widely enough to capture audio files and call recordings in principle.

The Evidence Law can make a recording potentially usable as evidence, but it does not “legalise” the method by which the recording was obtained. A recording may be evidentially relevant and still expose its maker to criminal or regulatory complaints if it was made without consent.

Practical litigation risk

At first sight, a recording can be evidentially useful, particularly where it captures a contemporaneous account or an admission. However, if it was made without consent, it may also create leverage for the opposing party to raise a separate complaint that the recording itself breached privacy protections under UAE criminal legislation. That does not automatically determine admissibility in a civil or commercial case, but it can complicate strategy and increase criminal exposure. From an evidential standpoint, you should assume that an unlawfully obtained recording will complicate proceedings and should not be used unless you are prepared to carry both the evidential burden (authenticity, completeness, context) and the collateral legal exposure that comes with the method of collection.

Best practice for clients

If you want a record of what was said, the best approach is to obtain consent before recording, and to preserve the original file intact. If consent is not forthcoming, the better course is to memorialise the call immediately in writing (email or WhatsApp), setting out the key points and inviting correction. This avoids criminal exposure and usually creates stronger, cleaner evidence than a disputed recording.

Conclusion

The Evidence Law may allow a recording to be treated as electronic evidence in civil and commercial proceedings, but it does not cure an unlawful recording, nor does it shield the recorder from Penal Code or cybercrime exposure. The defensible position is therefore consent-first: if consent is obtained, preserve the original file and be ready to support authenticity and context; if consent is not obtained, protect your position through contemporaneous written confirmations and other clean documentary proof.