Key takeaways
- Cabinet Resolutions No. 56 and 57 of 2024 set the UAE’s telemarketing rules and penalties, in force since 27 August 2024.
- Marketing calls: 9 AM to 6 PM only, from numbers registered to the company’s licence, at most once a day and twice a week if unanswered.
- Calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry can cost AED 50,000, then AED 75,000, then AED 150,000 per repeat violation.
- By August 2026 the TDRA reported more than AED 19 million in fines and 9,433 numbers disconnected for telemarketing misuse.
When the UAE tightened its telemarketing rules in 2024, I watched sales teams react in two ways. Some panicked and stopped calling altogether. Others ignored it and kept dialling from personal SIM cards. Both were wrong. The rules are strict but clear, and a team that respects them can still sell very effectively. This is the guide I wish every sales manager had read.
The two resolutions
- Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 sets the rules for marketing by phone.
- Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024 sets the penalties.
They came into force on 27 August 2024 and apply to all licensed companies in the UAE, including free zone companies.[1] Individuals are not allowed to make marketing calls from personal numbers.
The rules, in plain language
| Area | What the rules require |
|---|---|
| Permission | Prior approval from the TDRA before telemarketing, and staff trained on professional ethics and the Do Not Call Registry (DNCR) |
| Calling hours | Between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM only |
| Frequency | No more than once a day, and no more than twice a week for unanswered calls |
| Refusals | If the customer declines the offer, do not call again |
| Numbers | Use local numbers registered under the company’s commercial licence |
| DNCR | Do not call numbers registered on the Do Not Call Registry |
| Records | Keep detailed records of marketing calls and report as required |
The penalties are real
For a company that calls people registered on the DNCR, the fines escalate:[1]
- First violation: AED 50,000
- Second violation: AED 75,000
- Third and later violations: AED 150,000
Other sanctions include warnings, suspension of telemarketing activity and cancellation of the licence. Individuals who misuse numbers face fines and service disconnection. And enforcement is active: in August 2026, The National reported that the TDRA had issued more than Dh19 million in fines and disconnected 9,433 numbers since the clampdown began.[2]
What changes for a sales team
Speed matters more, not less
When you only get two unanswered attempts a week, you cannot rely on volume. The first attempt has to come fast, while the customer still remembers enquiring. I wrote about this in Speed to lead: why the first five minutes decide the deal.
Your number is part of your brand
Calls must come from numbers registered to your licence. That is good news for honest companies: customers can see who is calling, and spam-blocking apps are less likely to flag you.
Records protect you
If a customer complains, you need to show when you called, why, from which number, and what they said. A system that logs every attempt, every outcome and every opt-out automatically is far safer than a spreadsheet.
"No" means stop, everywhere
When a customer says they are not interested, that decision has to reach every channel: the dialler, the WhatsApp follow-up sequence and the email campaign. Otherwise one team keeps calling after another has been told no.
Service calls versus marketing calls
The rules target marketing. Returning a call the customer asked for, confirming an appointment they booked, or updating them on an order they placed is customer service. In practice, keep the content of those calls strictly about the customer’s request. If you start pitching a new product, you are back in marketing territory.
The same logic applies to WhatsApp. Replying to a customer who messaged you is service. Sending unsolicited promotions to people who never opted in is a different matter, and WhatsApp’s own business policies also limit it.
How to build a compliant calling process
- Get TDRA approval and train the team on the DNCR and the rules before any campaign.
- Centralise numbers. Remove personal SIMs from sales. Every call goes from a registered company line.
- Check every list against the DNCR before a campaign, and re-check regularly.
- Enforce the window in software. No human should have to remember that it is 6:02 PM.
- Cap attempts automatically: one per day, two unanswered per week, zero after a refusal.
- Use other channels for the gaps. A customer who enquired at 9 PM can get a WhatsApp reply immediately and a call at 9 AM.
- Log everything: time, number, agent, outcome and opt-outs.
This is the logic we built into the Northline AI outbound voice agent. The calling window, the frequency caps, the DNCR check and the opt-out handling are rules in the system, not reminders in a training deck.
Run outbound campaigns that respect UAE rules by design.
Financial services: extra care
Banks, insurers, lenders and other firms regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE have their own consumer protection standards on top of the telemarketing rules. If you sell financial products, involve compliance before you automate anything. Our financial services page explains how we approach it.
My view
The rules have made the UAE a better place to sell. Customers were tired of spam, and trust in phone calls was falling. Companies that call quickly, politely, from a real number, at sensible hours, and only to people who asked to hear from them, now stand out. That is not a constraint on good sales. It is a description of it.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
Every statistic in this article comes from the studies below.
Written by
Abdelfattah Alsaeed
Northline AI
Abdelfattah has spent more than ten years in sales and customer support across the UAE and international markets, from running his own e-commerce business to leading business development for Arabic AI voice agents. He writes about outbound calling, speed to lead and how UAE businesses can stop losing customers to unanswered calls.