Law No. 20 of 2019 Promulgating the Unified Law (Regulation) on Combating Commercial Fraud of the GCC States

Law No. 20 of 2019
Promulgating the Unified Law (Regulation) on Combating Commercial Fraud of the GCC States

Articles of Promulgation

Article One

The Unified Law (Regulation) on Combating Commercial Fraud of the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, attached hereto, is hereby approved.

Article Two

The Kuwaiti Dinar shall be equated with the Saudi Riyal according to the exchange rate announced by the Central Bank on the day of the judgment.

Article Three

The aforementioned Law No. (62) of 2007 is hereby repealed, provided that its provisions shall continue to apply until the Executive Regulations of the new Law are issued.

Article Four

The Prime Minister and the Ministers, each within his competence, shall implement the provisions of this Law.

Unified Law (Regulation) on Combating Commercial Fraud of the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

Article 1

In applying the provisions of this Law (Regulation), the following words and expressions shall have the meaning assigned to each of them, unless the context of the text requires otherwise:
1 – The Law (Regulation): the Unified Law (Regulation) on Combating Commercial Fraud of the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
2 – The Executive Regulations: the Executive Regulations issued in implementation of the provisions of this Law (Regulation).
3 – The GCC States: the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
4 – The State: a member State of the GCC States.
5 – The Commercial Cooperation Committee: the Ministers concerned with commerce affairs in the GCC States.
6 – The Competent Authority: the ministry or body responsible for implementing this Law (Regulation) in the State.
7 – The Minister: the Minister or the head of the Competent Authority responsible for implementing this Law (Regulation) in the State.
8 – The Court: the judicial body competent in the State to decide all violations, disputes and claims for compensation arising from the application of the provisions of this Law (Regulation).
9 – Goods: all kinds of basic and luxury commodities and products, raw, manufactured and semi-manufactured materials, and everything that is produced or manufactured.
10 – Adulterated Goods: any goods into which a change or imitation has been introduced in any manner, causing them to lose some of their material or moral value, whether by addition or reduction, or by a change in their essence, nature, kind, type, properties, form, components, volume measure, size, number, capacity, grade, origin or source, or by advertising or promoting them contrary to their reality.
11 – Spoiled Goods: any goods that are no longer fit for exploitation, use or consumption.
12 – The Supplier: every natural or juristic person who imports, exports, re-exports, manufactures, produces, markets, trades in, promotes, disposes of, sells, possesses, stores, transports or displays goods for his own account or for the account of others.

Article 2

Subject to the provisions of the Unified Customs Law (Regulation) of the GCC States, it is prohibited to import, export, produce, manufacture, display, sell, store, transport, market, trade in, promote, dispose of or possess with intent to sell adulterated or spoiled goods, and attempting any of the foregoing is likewise prohibited.
Any person who commits, participates in, attempts or incites the commission of any of the following acts shall be deemed to be in violation of the provisions of this Law (Regulation):
1. Importing adulterated or spoiled goods, or materials used in adulterating goods, or exporting, re-exporting, manufacturing, producing, selling, storing or transporting them.
2. Deception or fraud as to the type, number, quantity, measurement, volume measure, weight, capacity, grade, identity, reality, nature, characteristics, components, provenance, origin, composition or expiry date of the goods.
3. Possession, directly or through an intermediary, with intent to market, trade in, promote or display for sale adulterated or spoiled goods, or materials used in adulterating goods.
4. Using utensils, containers, wrappings, packages, labels or printed matter in preparing or making ready any adulterated or spoiled goods intended for sale.
5. Packing, bundling, tying, distributing, storing or transporting adulterated or spoiled goods.
6. Possessing adulterated or spoiled goods with intent to modify, alter or substitute them.
7. Describing, advertising or displaying goods in a manner containing false, deceptive or misleading data.

Article 3

The Supplier shall withdraw adulterated or spoiled goods from the markets and stores, notify the Competent Authority thereof and announce the same by appropriate means. The Competent Authority may withdraw adulterated and spoiled goods and dispose of or destroy them at the Supplier’s expense, without prejudice to the penalty prescribed against him. The Executive Regulations shall specify the procedures, controls and time limits necessary therefor.

Article 4

The Supplier shall be presumed to have knowledge of the adulterated or spoiled goods, and the purchaser’s knowledge thereof shall not prevent the application of the penalty prescribed against the Supplier.

Article 5

The Supplier shall refund the value of adulterated or spoiled goods to the purchaser, without prejudice to the purchaser’s right to claim compensation, in the manner specified by the Executive Regulations.

Article 6

Employees shall have the capacity of judicial police officers for the implementation of the provisions of this Law (Regulation) and the Executive Regulations, in accordance with the procedures followed in each State.

Article 7

Judicial police officers shall have the right to enter commercial premises and all places not designated for residence, stores and factories at any time, for the purpose of inspection, examining records and books, seizing suspected goods or placing them under precautionary custody with the Supplier and under his responsibility, and taking samples thereof for examination and analysis. The Executive Regulations shall specify the examination procedures and the time limits necessary therefor.

Article 8

A – It is prohibited to prevent judicial police officers from performing their duties.
B – The Supplier is prohibited from disposing of goods placed under precautionary custody before the examination result clearing them is issued.
C – Without prejudice to the right of the person concerned to apply to the Court for the release of the seized goods or the goods placed under precautionary custody, the goods shall be released if no order of the Court upholding the precautionary custody is issued within (45) forty-five days following the day of seizure.

Article 9

The Minister or his delegate may, by a reasoned decision, in case of necessity or urgency and where there is strong evidence of the existence of adulterated or spoiled goods with the Supplier, close the shop or place in which the crime was committed, provided that the matter is referred to the Court within (10) working days from the date of issuance of the decision, to confirm or revoke the closure; otherwise the decision shall be deemed never to have existed.

Article 10

Without prejudice to any more severe penalty provided for in any other law, the crimes set out in this Law (Regulation) shall be punished with the penalties provided for herein.

Article 11

Any person who violates the provisions of Articles (2), (3) and (5), and Clauses (A) and (B) of Article (8) of this Law (Regulation) shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and a fine of not less than 5000 five thousand Saudi Riyals or its equivalent in the currencies of the GCC States and not exceeding 1,000,000 one million Saudi Riyals or its equivalent in the currencies of the GCC States, or with either of these two penalties.
* Replaced by Article One of Decree-Law No. 93 of 2026 (Kuwait Al-Youm, Issue No. 1809, 20 September 2026).

Article 12

Imprisonment (incarceration) for a term not exceeding three years and a fine of not less than (100,000) one hundred thousand Saudi Riyals or its equivalent in the currencies of the GCC States and not exceeding (1,000,000) one million Saudi Riyals or its equivalent in the currencies of the GCC States, or either of these two penalties, shall be imposed if the act of fraud or deception in the goods – or the attempt thereof – is coupled with the use of counterfeit or discrepant scales, volume measures, gauges, seals, labels or examination devices, or with the use of methods and means that would render the weighing, volume measuring, measuring or examination of the product incorrect, or if the adulterated or spoiled goods or the materials used in adulterating them are harmful to the health and safety of humans or animals.

Article 13

1. Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles (11 – 12) and the rights of bona fide third parties, the Court shall order the confiscation or destruction of the adulterated or spoiled goods and of the materials and tools used therein, and the publication of a summary of the final judgment of conviction in two local daily newspapers, one of which is in Arabic, or by any other means determined by the Court, all at the expense of the convicted person.
2. The Court may order the closure of the shop or place in which the crime was committed for a period not exceeding six months.

Article 14

The person responsible for the actual management of the violating juristic person shall be punished with the same penalty provided for in Articles (11) and (12) if his knowledge of the crime is proven, or if his breach of the duties imposed on him by such management contributed to its occurrence.
He shall be jointly liable with the juristic person for the payment of any amounts adjudged if the crime was committed by one of its employees, or in its name or for its benefit.

Article 15

All crimes provided for in this Law (Regulation) shall be considered similar for the purposes of recidivism (repetition). The penalty prescribed for the crimes shall be doubled in case of recidivism (repetition), together with the closure of the shop or place in which the crime was committed for a period not exceeding one year. Any person who commits a similar crime within five years from the date of issuance of the previous final judgment of conviction shall be deemed a recidivist.

Article 16

The competent authorities in each State shall, in accordance with the legal procedures followed therein, issue the Executive Regulations within one month from the date of entry into force of this Law (Regulation), after their approval by the Commercial Cooperation Committee.

Article 17

The Commercial Cooperation Committee may propose amendments to this Law (Regulation) and its Executive Regulations.

Article 18

This Law (Regulation) shall be approved by the Supreme Council and shall be applied on a mandatory basis in accordance with the constitutional procedures in each State.

Issued on 19 May 2019 and published in the Official Gazette Kuwait Al-Youm on 2 June 2019.