UAE Telemarketing Rules 2026: The Complete Reference (Cabinet Res. 56 & 57)

When did the UAE telemarketing law come into force?

Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024, the UAE's Telemarketing Regulations, was issued and signed on 10 June 2024. Article 11 sets its own enforcement mechanism: "This Resolution shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall be enforced after (60) Sixty days as of the date of its publication." It was published in the Official Gazette on 28 June 2024, putting it into force on 27 August 2024, a date Morgan Lewis independently confirms: "The Decision was officially published on June 28, 2024 and will come into force on August 27, 2024." Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024, the companion penalty framework covered in full on our fines table page, was issued alongside it.

Who does the law apply to?

Article 3 sets the scope in two parts. First, companies: "The provisions of this Resolution shall apply to all companies licensed in the State, including those located in free zones, that market products or services through telemarketing" (Art. 3(1)). A free zone license does not sit outside the rules. Second, individuals: "Natural persons may not make Marketing Phone Calls for products or services they provide in their name... using a fixed or mobile number licensed in their name" (Art. 3(2)).

Article 1 defines the activity itself: "Telemarketing" means "Phone Calls made by a company or a natural person to a Consumer for marketing, advertising or promoting the products or services they provide..." (Art. 1). That narrow definition is the pivot the inbound-versus-outbound question turns on, covered later on this page.

What are the core rules for every telemarketing call?

Before making a single call, Article 4(1) requires a company to: "Obtain prior approval to practice Phone Marketing activity from the Competent Authority." Every subsequent rule assumes that approval already exists.

The most cited rule in Resolution 56 is the calling-hours restriction, Article 5(3), which states, verbatim: "Make Marketing Phone Calls only during the period from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm." A call placed at 8:59 am or 6:01 pm falls outside the window. See our dedicated breakdown of the 9-to-6 rule for what that means operationally.

A cluster of provisions governs consent and call-back etiquette during and after the call itself:

• Consent before pitching (Art. 5(7)). "Ask the Consumer whether he wants to continue the Phone Call or not before starting to market, advertise and promote the product or service provided."
• No means no (Art. 5(4)). "Do not call the Consumer back if he rejects the product or service on the first call."
• Call-back frequency cap (Art. 5(5)). "Not to call the Consumer back, if he does not answer the call or ends the call, more than once a day and a maximum of twice a week."
• Data handling (Art. 6(4)). "Consumer personal data may not be disclosed without his consent or to trade it for reprocessing..."

What is the DNCR and what must companies do about it?

Article 1 defines the national suppression list: "Do Not Connect Register (DNCR): The unified national registry supervised by TDRA to protect Consumers from unwanted Marketing Phone Calls." The core obligation follows directly in Article 4(5): "Do not call for marketing products or services to Consumers whose numbers are listed on the DNCR." On the consumer side, Article 6(5) confirms: "The Consumer may register in the DNCR to suspend receiving Marketing Phone Calls and file complaints about them..."

One genuine oddity in the primary text: Article 1 spells it the "Do Not Connect Register", while a separate provision elsewhere in the same resolution calls it the "Do Not Call Registry", the same acronym, DNCR, with two different English expansions in the same official translation. That is a drafting inconsistency in the source document, not an error in any summary of it. Both names refer to the same registry. See our complete DNCR guide for how screening works in practice.

What are the rules on caller ID and call recording?

Two provisions govern the phone number a company calls from: "Use local Phone numbers issued by telecommunications companies licensed in the State, and these numbers shall be registered under the commercial license of the Company..." (Art. 4(3)), and, stated negatively for emphasis, "Do not use Phone numbers that are not registered or owned by the Company licensed in the State to make Marketing Phone Calls" (Art. 4(13)). A caller ID not registered to the calling company's own UAE commercial license is itself a violation, independent of anything said on the call.

On recording, Resolution 56 states: "Record Marketing Phone Calls, with the necessity of informing the Consumer of this recording when the call begins" (Art. 4(7)). This is the only provision addressing call recording in either Resolution 56 or 57; the PDPL (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021) has no distinct call-recording article of its own; voice is covered only as an identifying element within its general personal-data definition. See our PDPL and call-recording guide for the full picture.

Is AI-powered telemarketing legal in the UAE?

This is the single most load-bearing clause on this page for anyone deploying an AI voice agent. Article 5(6) states, verbatim: "Automated communication systems may be used for marketing, advertising and promoting the products or services provided by the Company in accordance with the provisions of this resolution."

That is explicit, primary-source permission for automated and AI-driven telemarketing calls. It is not unconditional: the clause's own final words, "in accordance with the provisions of this resolution", subject automated calling to every other rule on this page: calling hours, DNCR screening, consent, and recording with notice among them. Resolution 57 prices non-compliant automated calling under Article 5(6) at the same AED 10,000 to AED 50,000 tier as most other procedural violations (see the full fines table); the law does not carve out a harsher, AI-specific penalty, but it does not exempt AI from anything either.

Who enforces these rules?

Article 9 splits enforcement across four bodies. The Ministry of Economy holds general supervision (9.1). The Central Bank of the UAE handles telemarketing calls for banks, financial institutions, and insurance, "in the manner stipulated in this resolution and the regulations issued by the Central Bank in this regard" (9.2), the exact clause the 2026 CBUAE update below was issued under. The Securities and Commodities Authority covers marketing calls for securities and commodities (9.3). Local competent authorities in each Emirate cover everything else (9.4).

What are the penalties for breaking these rules?

Resolution 57 prices 18 distinct company violations on a three-tier scale, first, second, and third offence, ranging from AED 10,000 up to AED 150,000, plus a separate, harsher-in-kind penalty ladder for individuals that includes cutting phone service entirely. Beyond the AED figures, the authority can also warn, suspend operations for 7 to 90 days, or cancel a license outright, escalating faster on repeat violations within six months. We do not duplicate the full 18-row table here: see our complete penalty table, transcribed from the official PDF and independently re-verified cell by cell, for every figure.

Are inbound calls exempt from telemarketing rules?

No official TDRA or Cabinet document states, in those exact words, that AI voice agents on inbound calls are exempt from the telemarketing rules. That widely repeated framing, including in some of our own earlier content, is an industry-derived inference rather than a direct quote. The underlying reasoning holds, but it deserves to be shown as a chain, not asserted as a verbatim rule:

1. The Telemarketing definition itself is narrow. Article 1 defines it as a call made "for marketing, advertising or promoting the products or services" provided. A purely transactional or support call, an appointment confirmation, an answer to a question, an order-status update, that markets nothing arguably falls outside the definition entirely, regardless of which party dialled.
2. The law separately excludes calls the consumer asked for. Article 1 defines "Unwanted Marketing Phone Calls" and explicitly excludes "Marketing Phone Calls made at the request of the Consumer" from that category.
3. Article 4(4) contemplates an opt-in inbound channel. It requires companies to "create a communication channel for Consumers interested in obtaining marketing information and ensure that marketing communication is only made with these Consumers", an explicit concept of consumer-initiated contact.
4. The Ministry of Economy has said as much publicly. Khaleej Times reported the Ministry's own announcement stating: "Firms will not be penalised for making phone calls initiated at the consumer's request."

Put together, those four points build a genuinely defensible position that a customer-initiated or purely non-marketing inbound call sits outside the outbound telemarketing regime. They do not give you a single sentence to quote as "the law says inbound is exempt." Present it as the reasoning chain above, not as a verbatim regulatory statement: no primary source makes that claim in those words.

What changed in 2026: the CBUAE update?

No amendment to Cabinet Resolution 56 or 57 itself has been made as of 27 July 2026. A separate, sector-specific rule has arrived instead: the CBUAE Telemarketing Regulation, effective 19 February 2026. It applies only to CBUAE-licensed financial institutions: banks, insurance and reinsurance companies, and other CBUAE-licensed financial activities, and does not change the general, economy-wide Resolution 56/57 rules covered above for every other sector.

Sources cite the underlying circular under different numbers, so this page does not assert one confirmed circular number. Confirmed: the regulation's name, its 19 February 2026 effective date, a 29 June 2026 compliance deadline, and Article 16, which requires automated dialling systems to connect the customer to a human telemarketer within two seconds of answer. It is the first UAE regulatory text found to explicitly address AI-generated communications by name: its consent mechanism must capture whether the customer prefers contact "by a human agent, an AI based agent, or a robocall." Marketer training rises to a minimum of 15 hours and record retention to a minimum of 5 years. See our dedicated guide to the CBUAE update for the full detail if you serve banks or insurers.

For most businesses outside banking and insurance, Cabinet Resolutions 56 and 57 remain the entire rulebook. MAJ Leads builds every control on this page, calling hours, DNCR screening, consent, recording with notice, and the Article 5(6) automated-calling permission, into AI receptionist and AI appointment booking deployments by default. See the full range of AI voice agent services we deploy under this framework, and the complete penalty table for exactly what each violation costs.