United Arab Emirates: Corporate/Commercial Law

Escrow is becoming a standard feature in Middle East–Asia transactions as businesses manage growing cross-border risk. By placing funds with a neutral third party until agreed conditions are met, escrow reduces counterparty risk, secures payments and enables complex multi-party deals to proceed with greater certainty and control.

The ancillary restraints doctrine, developed by the European Commission, validates restraints objectively necessary to implement legitimate transactions with neutral or positive competitive effects.

The UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism is developing a National Competition Platform that will use artificial intelligence to transform competition enforcement, potentially reducing merger review timelines to 15 days while automating antitrust investigations and exemption procedures.

Contracts play a central role in commercial and personal transactions within the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”). Under UAE law, contracts are generally binding once valid consent...

Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 represents the most significant reform of UAE civil law in a generation, fundamentally reshaping how contracts and civil transactions are governed across the Emirates.

A foreign branch can be converted into an LLC in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but it is not a simple amendment. The process involves re-registering the business as a separate legal entity, transferring contracts, employees and licences, and restructuring ownership. This shift allows businesses to ring-fence liability, improve operational flexibility and align with long-term expansion plans.

Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 represents the most significant reform of UAE civil law in a generation, fundamentally reshaping how contracts and civil transactions are governed across the Emirates.

A WPS block in the UAE can restrict a company’s ability to process work permits, visas and other MoHRE services. These blocks usually arise when salary payments are delayed, processed outside approved WPS channels or incorrectly reported, even where employees have already been paid.

The concept of dual licensing has emerged as a transformative development in the UAE’s business ecosystem, giving companies the strategic flexibility to operate across both free zones and the mainland under a more integrated structure.

The stability of a commercial enterprise in the Middle East rests upon the alignment of its internal stakeholders. When this alignment fractures, a shareholder dispute in the UAE typically manifests as a legal...

The Federal Tax Authority (“FTA”) has issued Public Clarification CTP010, providing guidance on the meaning of “director” and “officer” for the purposes of the UAE Corporate Tax regime.

The Capital Market Authority of the United Arab Emirates has introduced a comprehensive new licensing regime for Virtual Asset Service Providers, establishing eight distinct regulated activities with risk-based capital requirements and enhanced governance standards. The framework consolidates previous regulations while introducing stricter controls on privacy tokens, algorithmic tokens, and client asset holdings, positioning the UAE as a leading hub for regulated digital asset innovation.