Saudi Arabia approves law for entrepreneurs aged 15 and over — Asharq Al-Awsat
The Cabinet of Ministers of Saudi Arabia, chaired by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, approved a new commercial transactions law. The document allows citizens aged 15 and over to engage in entrepreneurship under specified conditions, Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
Minister of Commerce Majid Al-Kasabi said that the law regulates commercial sales, supply contracts, brokerage and agency agreements. According to him, the document supplements the Civil Transactions Law and is intended to stimulate trade and investment.
Unified rules for commerce
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce said that the law consists of 271 articles. It covers commercial activity, merchants, enterprises, merchants' obligations, accounting records, contracts and negotiable instruments, including bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques.
The new document replaces three existing laws: the Commercial Law, the Negotiable Instruments Law and the Commercial Books Law. For the first time, rules on commercial sales, supply contracts, commercial representation and brokerage agreements have been combined in one legislative act.
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The law is aimed at protecting fair competition and limiting practices that harm competitors. Businesses affected by such actions will be able to apply to court to have them stopped and seek compensation. Certain categories of merchants will be exempt from the obligation to keep accounting records.
Entry into force and support for SMEs
Accounting records may be kept in electronic or paper form in Arabic, with the option of using another language as well. The law will enter into force 180 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.
The law is intended to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with greater legal protection and help them expand through commercial contracts and agency agreements. Legal consultant Osama bin Ghanem Al-Obeidi called the decision a step toward modernizing the country's economic legislation and noted that electronic documents will have the same evidentiary value as paper originals.
