The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (“TRA”) has recently reviewed and updated its Consumer Protection Regulations to strengthen and clarify provisions concerning telecommunications advertising.  

The TRA first issued a set of regulations concerning consumer protection (“Consumer Protection Regulations”) in October 2014.  Under those regulations (which our team covered in our September 2014 issue http://www.tamimi.com/en/magazine/law-update/section-8/september-4/new-telco-consumer-protection-regulations.html ), the two licensed public telecommunications network operators in the UAE, Etisalat and du (“Licensees”), were made subject to a set of rules aimed squarely at providing their telecommunications consumers with clear and unambiguous information about matters such as the scope of services, contracts, and invoices, as well as providing a consumer complaint procedure.

In December 2015, the TRA further updated the Consumer Protection Regulations (these changes were gazetted in April 2016).  The amended provisions for advertising came into force on 31 March 2016. 

Key Changes