The Court of Investment and Commerce was established in 2025 to provide an expedited and specialised path for hearing investment and commercial disputes where at least one party is a trader and the dispute relates to their business, as well as disputes arising from investment contracts. This includes disputes between partners and shareholders, banking, construction, transport, intellectual property, and bankruptcy. Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the Court of Investment and Commerce, the court’s judgments can still be contested before the Supreme Court.

The Law of the Court of Investment and Commerce sets out the court’s jurisdiction, composition, and appeal periods, but it leaves much of the day-to-day procedure unexplained. The manual attempts to fill that gap by explaining step by step how to register a claim on the court’s online portal, which documents are needed for each type of claim, and how fees are calculated. It also describes the role of the Lawsuit Preparation Office and sets out the deadlines for exchanging pleadings and for the court to schedule hearings and issue judgments. The manual makes clear that it does not replace the legislation and must be read alongside the court’s law and the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law.

Three provisions from the manual stand out. First, all proceedings start electronically through the court’s portal, where the claimant submits the statement of claim, supporting documents, and court fees. If a request included in the statement of claim is left out of the portal entry, the filing is deemed not to have been made and must be resubmitted. The Lawsuit Preparation Office then reviews the filing. If anything is missing, the claimant has 10 days to correct it. Once the fees are paid, the case is registered and the defendant is notified within three working days.

Second, some claims must be filed through an advocate. This applies to individuals claiming more than 30,000 Rial Omani and to companies claiming more than 10,000 Rial Omani.

Third, the parties exchange their pleadings within fixed periods: 15 days for the defendant’s defence, 15 days for the claimant’s reply, and 10 days for the defendant’s final response. After that, the court has 15 days to schedule a hearing and 90 days to issue its judgment. The court may extend the 90-day period by 45 days.

For businesses and investors, understanding these procedures can help avoid errors and delays when bringing or defending a claim. Although the manual was published in Arabic, an English version is available in full on Decree at the link below.

This regulation governs a specific type of children development centres that are open for any child to enter. Such centres aim to provide educational and developmental programmes and activities aimed at developing their skills and abilities. They are not specifically made for disabled children but they do provide programmes for the disabled.

The regulation sets building and safety standards, including surveillance cameras with at least three months of storage. It sets minimum qualifications for each staff role. It also fixes how many children each caregiver may look after: one caregiver for every four babies up to one year old, and one supervisor with one caregiver for every eight children aged one to two, or every twelve children aged two and above. Centres may not accept donations, and children with disabilities may make up no more than 15% of enrolment unless the ministry approves more.

These are only some of the key provisions of Ministerial Decision 378/2026, which has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

A key substantive change can be seen in article 5bis which allows a controller to process its own staff data, including biometric data such as fingerprints, without the need to obtain a permit from the ministry.

Article 14 grants data subjects a new right to object to decisions made through automated processing, for example, filtering of CVs for job applications, and to require the controller to bring in a human to review the decision.

Moreover, article 15 imposes a new obligation on controllers and processors to erase personal data as soon as its processing purpose ends, subject to narrow exceptions, like an existing dispute or a legal obligation.

Article 22 strengthens consent requirements by requiring explicit consent for marketing purposes, and article 10 provides a new list of specifications for the request for consent to process personal data.

The amendment includes several other substantive changes relating to definitions, territorial scope, consent, direct marketing, and fines.

This amendment has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Rusul Al-Asfoor

Rusul is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, she interned at local and international law firms in Muscat. She is interested in commercial law. She holds an LLB from Nottingham Trent University.

Under the previous law, auctions were only mandatory for concession agreements, and ordinary prospecting and exploitation licences could be granted after the ministry simply verified the applicant’s technical and financial standing. Now, prospecting and exploitation licences must not be granted except by way of auction, though the ministry retains a narrow exception allowing it to assign some mining sites directly.

The previous law required a concession to run for 20 to 30 years, cover at least 5 square kilometres, and be backed by both an economic feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment before it could be granted. The amended law drops all four of these requirements, leaving only the applicant’s technical competence and financial solvency, and the need to specify technical and financial supervision arrangements for the site.

Penalties for illegal extraction have also been simplified. Before, a licensee who deliberately mined outside their own licensed limits actually faced a tougher punishment than someone with no licence at all: imprisonment plus a fine of 50,000 to 150,000 Rial Omani, or just one of the two. Now both offences carry the same fine, 20,000 to 100,000 Rial Omani, but imprisonment of one to three years is compulsory.

These are only some of the key changes made by Royal Decree 69/2026, which enters into force today. You can read it in full in English at the link below:

Written by:

Basil Al-Ismaili

Basil is a legal intern at Decree. Prior to interning at Decree, he interned in the oil and gas industry. He holds an LLB in Business Law from Nottingham Trent University.

Giving Unions Room to Operate

One of the clearest obligations imposed on employers, is the duty to provide labour unions with the physical space and resources needed to operate. Under article 35, this means a properly equipped office, internet access, a phone line, and the other basics a union needs to operate. Additionally, employers shall permit access to relevant administrative and financial data affecting its members, such as, records tied to training, wages, decisions, promotions, and disciplinary action, in accordance with article 26. Though, the union must still adhere to the confidentiality of such data, and can only use it within the parameters the decision sets out.

Allowing Union Work to Take Place

The most substantial set of obligations imposed on employers concerns time. Fundamentally, it is about allowing employees to perform union work during work hours. Subject to article 66, union members must be excused from their regular duties to carry out union business. For smaller unions consisting of less than 100 members, 30 days per year suffices. Mid size unions consist of 100 to 300 members, meaning they get a total of 90 days per year. The union member selected by the administrative body for a union with more than 300 members, must be excused from work full-time. This is a meaningful switch from the old system, which calculated excusal on a weekly basis rather than an annual one. Furthermore, none of this comes at the employees expense. Excused members will keep their full wage, promotions, and periodic allowances, with their time away still counting towards their actual length of service, in accordance with article 69. Those excused full-time are also exempt from performance evaluation for these purposes, instead, their last review, or their average over the past three years if higher, is used to determine allowances and promotions. This decision introduces a new provision which requires employers to provide means of transport for members carrying out union tasks that are 150 kilometres away from the headquarters of the labour union, trade union, or the general federation, provided the establishment is notified at least 5 days before the task takes place, except in urgent cases, such as a workplace accident or a labour strike.

Limits on Employer Interference

Beyond what employers are required to do, the decision also sets restrictions on employer conduct. Under article 6, an employer is not permitted to transfer a member of the administrative body from the worksite the union has designated as its headquarters without the consent of the member. Furthermore, this extends to article 70 which prohibits an employer from performing an act which results in the disruption of union work. The non-disruption duty in article 70 reflects protections already grounded in the Labour Law, so it is not a new burden; the transfer restriction in article 6, however, does not appear in the old Ministerial Decision 500/2018 or in its 2022 amendment.

Supporting Union Democracy

The final obligation is more of a procedural one. Employers also have a role in supporting the democratic process within the union itself. Article 14 sets a duty upon employers to facilitate the election of members of the administrative body of a labour or trade union, a duty that carries over largely unchanged from the previous decision.

Conclusion

Ultimately, these obligations convey that Ministerial Decision 284/2026 asks relatively little of employers in financial terms. The real cost is in time, access, non-interference, and in understanding exactly what the decision now expects of them, with article 68’s transport requirement arising as the one genuinely new burden. It’s also worth noting that the decision’s changes extend beyond these specific duties. Registration is now considerably faster, and several approval powers have shifted from the Ministry to the General Federation, pointing to a union landscape that moves quicker and answers less directly to the state than before. For employers, the takeaway is straightforward. This decision is about making space, allowing time, and staying out of the way, not a financial one. For the full text of Ministerial Decision 284/2026, including provisions not covered in this post, we highly recommend reading it in full via the link below:

Written by:

Zayd Al Harrasi

Zayd is a legal intern at Decree. He is interested in corporate, commercial, and company law. He is about to start the final year of his Business Law Degree at Nottingham Trent University.

The regulation organises the sector into six licences: operating or managing a tourist or hotel establishment; travel and tourism offices (and branches of foreign tourism companies); tourist guidance; adventure tourism; high art performance groups in hotels and restaurants; and business tourism. The last two stand out. Adventure tourism, everything from off-road desert driving and mountain trekking to caving, canyoning, and ziplining, now has its own licence and a dedicated annex listing exactly which activities are covered. Business tourism, meaning conferences, exhibitions, and corporate incentive trips, is recognised as a licensed activity in its own right.

Under the old regulation, if the ministry sat on a licence application for 60 days, that silence counted as a rejection. The new regulation flips this; the ministry has 60 days to decide, and if it says nothing, the application is deemed accepted. For a sector that lives or dies on getting projects open, this reversal is the most consequential single change in the regulation.

Tourist guiding in English remains reserved for Omanis. Guides are split into general, locational, and specialised categories, must keep groups to no more than 30 people at a site, and are barred from discussing politics or religion or from working in military, border, or customs zones without permission. Adventure tourism operators carry the heaviest safety burden: an Omani licence-holder, a security and safety audit certificate, insurance issued inside Oman, a licensed specialist guide on every trip, risk and safety management plans, and a duty to cancel outings when bad weather is forecast.

Several licence fees have actually come down; a five-star hotel licence now costs 1,900 Rial Omani for three years, against the previous 3,200 Rial Omani for five years. Establishments still collect a 4% tourism fee for the ministry and an 8% service charge, but the service charge must now be paid out to staff in cash. Administrative fines in the regulation are capped at 6,000 OMR.

You can read the new Executive Regulation of the Tourism Law in full in English on the link below:

In 2025, the Law Regulating Real Estate was a major reform of the legal framework governing the real estate sector. This new Law of the Real Estate Registry updates the legal framework for the real estate registry, in other words, the way in which real estate is registered, to be aligned with the Law Regulating Real Estate that was issued last year.

One of the key features of the new law is the incorporation of the concept of a Preliminary Real Estate Registry for off-plan projects, allowing buyers to officially record their ownership and legal rights before a building is finished, which was already introduced by the Law Regulating Real Estate. Another update includes the option to request an English-language translation of your mulkiya, the formal recognition of temporary mulkiyas, and clear rules for registering real estate gifted to minors or seized by court order.

One of the more notable additions of the new law is that it allows the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to outsource certain documentation functions relating to the Real Estate Registry to the private sector. The law does not provide a lot of details on the scope of this possible delegation.

Penalties for real estate fraud have also been dramatically increased. Previously, under the Statute of the Real Estate Registry, knowingly registering a false document to deprive someone of their real estate rights carried a tiny fine of just 200 Rial Omani. Now, that same offence carries a prison sentence of six months to three years, plus a fine ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 Rial Omani.

The Law of the Real Estate Registry enters into force today. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

The Legal Status of a Special Zone

The AI Special Zone is a special economic zone governed by the Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones, issued by Royal Decree 38/2025, exactly like the Special Economic Zone at Duqm.

A zone created by virtue of this law is granted specific benefits so that the zone is attractive to foreign investment. For example, companies doing business in the zone get up to thirty years of exemption from corporate income tax, customs exemptions for imported and exported goods, and exemptions from minimum capital requirements. Furthermore, land within the zone is allocated by lease or usufruct outside the constraints of the regular Land Law.

One of the key benefits of the zone will be the creation of a one-stop shop that handles all licensing and permits required for the operation of companies in the zone. The law places a strict deadline for issuing the licences and permits within the zone. For example, labour permits for non-Omani employees must be issued within five working days.

There are also other benefits, like a single comprehensive approval for strategic projects and residency for the owners of the company.

How will it be operated?

The law requires the AI Special Zone to be operated by an operator appointed by the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones. This operator has to be a company. The news outlets have reported that the government has appointed an Omani company called Afouq Investment and Development United to both establish and operate the zone.

How does it differ from IFCO?

One of the biggest announcements of the year was the establishment of the International Financial Centre of Oman, and it’s important to point out the differences between these two projects.

The AI Special Zone provides a number of specific exemptions and benefits, but it is still governed by Omani law. For example, Omanisation rules still apply in the AI Special Zone, the Commercial Companies Law also applies, and Omani courts have full jurisdiction over the zone. In particular, the Omanisation rules prohibit the hiring of non-Omani software engineers, and therefore, this prohibition will apply to companies working in the zone.

Unlike the AI Special Zone, IFCO is a totally independent legal jurisdiction in which Omani law does not apply and has its own court system. This means that the Omanisation rules categorically do not apply.

However, even though the AI Special Zone will still be bound by Omani law, the ability of the zone to attract the AI industry will depend on factors beyond the law, such as its ability to provide infrastructure and services, as well as other facilities that make the zone an attractive destination for the AI industry.

You can learn more about special economic zones, such as the AI Special Zone, by reading the Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones in full in English on the link below:

The law gives the National Survey and Geospatial Information Authority, which is a department of the Ministry of Defence, broad oversight over geospatial matters in the country. For example, you need permission from the authority to conduct surveys, to produce any map or atlas, to export geospatial data outside Oman, or to use the maps of Oman commercially.

Failure to comply with this law results in penalties up to 3 years of imprisonment and fines up to 30,000 Rial Omani.

Entities affected by the law have 6 months from its entry into force to bring themselves into compliance. 

You can read the National Geospatial Data and Information Law in full in English on the link below:

This decision is the latest in a series of moves by the FSA to align Oman’s financial sector with internationally recognised standards. Earlier last year, the FSA issued Decision E/2/2025, which made IFRS the mandatory model for preparing and auditing financial statements in Oman. The latest decision extends that same approach to sustainability, requiring companies to disclose how climate and sustainability-related risks affect their business.

Both standards must be fully applied from 1 January 2029, with the exception of scope 3 under IFRS S2, which covers indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and which must be applied from 1 January 2030. The FSA will also issue forms to guide companies through implementation. Failure to comply can result in penalties ranging from a warning to being struck off the Accountants and Auditors Register.

This decision comes into force as of tomorrow. You can read the text of the decision in full on the link below:

Financial Services Authority: Decision E/7/2026 Adopting the Two International Standards on Sustainability Disclosures