The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP) published a new Governance Regulation for Electronic Commerce in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette to regulate online stores.
The new regulation creates a new licensing framework for “economic activities” taking place through electronic means, and for “online stores selling, offering, marketing, or promoting goods or services, or exchanging information about them.” Such stores will now be required to obtain a licence before they are able to conduct their online activities and will be required to publish on their websites certain details such as a privacy policy, tax details, and customer support details.
The new regulation also establishes a framework for companies to provide “verification services” for online stores and requires MOCIIP to create a website dedicated for this new verification process.
MOCIIP has the power under the new regulation to impose penalties such as issuing fines up to 500 Rial Omani and blocking access to the online store.
This new regulation enters into force after three months. You can read it in full in English on the link below: