Residents in United Arab Emirates (UAE) may face stiff penalties reaching to almost half a million or Dh500,000 by selling online without a license.
These include online catering, tailoring and beauty businesses from home.
Selling clothes, homemade food, shoes and accessories have been too common in social media and lawyers have warned of the penalties sellers could face.
UAE government has been cracking down on illegal websites selling products. They shut down several online sites in 2018.
Under the law, residents must secure a license to operate before selling anything.
“If their customers face health issues, these businesses could find themselves in a vulnerable position as they are unregulated and therefore, could be exposed to further penalties by the authorities,” lawyer Yousif Ahmed told the Khaleej Times.
“Article 6 of the Dubai Law Number 13 of 2011 which regulates the conduct of economic activities within Dubai, states that every trading activity shall have a licence. It states that any legal or natural person shall conduct trading activities only with a licence that has been issued by the Department of Economic Development (DED).”
Failure to comply with this law will make any online business illegal and is tantamount to paying penalties.
Read the step by step process on how to get e-commerce license in Dubai https://decisivezone.ae/how-to-start-your-e-commerce-business-in-the-uae/