E-commerce Business in the UAE 2026: Licence Routes, Amazon.ae and noon Seller Checklist, Payment Gateways and the E-commerce Law

To sell online in Dubai you need a trade licence whose activities cover your goods: a DET mainland licence, a free zone licence, or a home-based e-Trader or Intelaq licence if you qualify. Then follow the federal e-commerce and consumer protection laws, and register for VAT above AED 375,000.

This guide is for founders selling physical products online to UAE customers through their own website, social media, or marketplaces such as Amazon.ae and noon. It covers which licence marketplaces and payment providers accept, what the e-commerce law and its penalty table require, and how VAT and customs work when your stock is in the UAE or abroad. If you are still comparing business types, start with our guide to starting a business in the UAE.

Which licence do you need to sell online in Dubai?

People search for an “e-commerce license” in Dubai as if there were one licence. In practice the authority licenses activities, and the right licence depends on who you are, what you sell, where stock sits and whether you will hire staff.

Route 1: a home-based licence (e-Trader or Intelaq)

DET’s e-Trader licence and the Intelaq home licence are low-cost ways to run a small business from home in Dubai. Both have eligibility limits by nationality and activity, and neither allows a shop or warehouse. e-Trader also provides no visas. Our home business licence guide covers who qualifies, the allowed activities, fees and when to upgrade. Amazon.ae’s registration guide says the DED Trader licence allows “Online Seller” as an activity. Before you plan a marketplace business around it, check that your nationality group can take a goods-trading activity.

Route 2: a DET mainland licence

A DET-licensed mainland company can sell to customers anywhere in the UAE, import in its own name and sponsor staff. You add trading activities that match your products. On 3 October 2026, DET’s business activity search returned no single all-purpose “e-commerce” activity. It did return product-specific e-trading activities, such as “Vehicles and transport means E-Trading” (4791005), and an activity called “Portal” (6312004). Read each activity’s description and external approvals before choosing. Our guide to Dubai mainland licence types explains activity codes and external approvals.

Route 3: a free zone licence

Dubai CommerCity is the free zone built for e-commerce, with e-commerce, trade and general trading licences alongside warehousing and fulfilment. Our Dubai CommerCity guide covers its licences, facilities and mainland access options. Licence-only zones such as Meydan Free Zone and IFZA suit sellers using a third-party warehouse or marketplace fulfilment. Article 2 of Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 applies the law to free zone companies that sell outside the zone, or where the zone has no e-commerce rules of its own.

For visas, quota and tax compared, see free zone vs mainland. Zone packages change often, so this page quotes only fees an authority publishes (checked 3 October 2026).

Who regulates an online store in the UAE?

No single regulator approves an online store. Your licensing authority licenses the company, federal bodies set trading rules, and product and media regulators approve specific goods and promotions.

What does the UAE e-commerce law require of an online seller?

Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 Concerning the Modern Technology-Based Trade (MOET’s English text calls it “Trading by Modern Technological Means”) was issued on 4 September 2023 and took effect on 16 September 2023. It covers sales through websites, platforms, apps and social media inside the UAE or received from outside it. It also covers logistics providers and payment gateways serving that trade.

Your duties as a “digital merchant”

• Approvals (Article 5). Hold the licences and approvals your store and goods need. Do not sell goods requiring special approval before you have it.
• Published terms (Article 5). Publish prices, delivery fees, payment fees and terms. A purchase counts as acceptance of them.
• Security and continuity (Article 5). Keep a technically secure store that meets the competent authority’s cyber-security standards, and have a business continuity plan.
• Honesty and invoices (Article 5). No misleading descriptions. Issue a detailed non-paper invoice for every purchase.
• Visible details (Article 6). Show your licence, address, physical address details, contact numbers and website. Provide a permanently available complaints channel with complaint tracking, and a way for customers to rate you.
• Marketing consent (Article 6). Customers choose whether to receive marketing calls, emails or social media messages.
• No surprise fees (Articles 14 and 15). No delivery or payment charges beyond those announced in your terms.
• Data (Article 10). UAE data protection legislation applies to customer data.

Returns and disputes

Under Article 7, customers may return or exchange goods that are illegal, defective, incomplete, damaged, not as described, so late they are unusable, or in breach of your terms. The right is lost if the item was used (except to check for a defect), after the relevant period, for foods or goods expiring within three weeks, and for single-use books, films or programs. Under Article 9, a digital contract worth less than AED 50,000 cannot include an arbitration clause.

Penalties under Cabinet Resolution No. 200 of 2025

Cabinet Resolution No. 200 of 2025, signed on 27 November 2025, sets the penalty table. It took effect the day after publication in the Official Gazette. Fines are payable within 30 days. You can file a grievance with the ministry within 30 days of notification, and the ministry decides it within 30 days. Selected rows from the official Arabic table:

Closures are temporary unless marked permanent. The ministry can skip steps for serious breaches, and continuing a breach after the warning period counts as a new breach.

What does consumer protection law add for online sellers?

Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection applies to all goods and services in the UAE, including free zones, and to e-commerce where the supplier is registered in the UAE (Article 3). Its executive regulation is Cabinet Decision No. 66 of 2023.

• Arabic. Consumer data, advertisements and contracts must be in Arabic, with other languages optional (Article 26). Invoices must be dated, in Arabic, and show your trade name, address, item, price and quantity (Article 8).
• Product pages. Article 40 of the regulation lists what an e-commerce supplier must show, including producer and importer details, specifications in Arabic, country of origin, production date and shelf life, misuse risks, storage and use instructions, and return terms. You must also hold conformity documents and show the conformity mark. The penalty table lists AED 100,000 for failing to show these particulars.
• Platforms. The same article makes a supplier responsible for faults in goods that third parties sell through its e-platform.
• Promotions. Promotions and general discounts need a prior permit from the competent authority (Article 18 of the law, Article 31 of the regulation). DET’s promotion certificate service lists e-stores among its users.

Criminal penalties sit on top. Breaching Articles 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 21 or 8(1) to (3) can bring up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of AED 10,000 to AED 2,000,000, or either (Article 29). Breaching Articles 18, 19, 20, 26 or 8(4) can bring up to six months and AED 3,000 to AED 200,000, or either (Article 30).

What do Amazon.ae and noon ask sellers for?

The marketplaces run their own checks on top of the law. This summarises their official seller pages; both update them, so recheck before applying.

Companies registered abroad can sell as international sellers, but UAE VAT, customs and product rules still apply to goods sold into the UAE.

How do you get a payment gateway approved?

Merchant acquirers and payment aggregators are licensed payment service providers under the CBUAE’s Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation. Article 12 requires them to run risk-based due diligence on users, including merchants, and bars them from starting a relationship they cannot complete due diligence on. Expect them to check:

• Licence fit: your licence activities match what the website sells. A mismatch commonly stalls onboarding.
• Ownership: IDs of shareholders and managers, constitutional documents and beneficial owners.
• Settlement account: a corporate account in the licensed name. See our corporate bank account guide.
• Website compliance: licence details, address, contacts, prices and fees, terms, returns policy, complaints channel and privacy notice, as Decree-Law 14 of 2023 requires.
• Product risk: approval-dependent goods get extra scrutiny, so have approvals ready.
• The provider itself: confirm it is CBUAE-licensed or works through a licensed acquirer.

Gateway pricing, settlement times and reserves are commercial terms, not government fees.

Which products need approval before you list them?

A licence lets you trade. It does not approve every product. Two examples from official sources:

• Cosmetics and personal care in Dubai. Dubai Municipality’s technical guidelines (version 2.1) say no cosmetic product may be imported, advertised, sold or distributed in Dubai unless registered in Montaji. Advertising, including on social media, needs Montaji pre-approval.
• Regulated products. MoIAT issues conformity certificates for regulated products through its e-services system.

Food, supplements, medical products, electronics and other categories each have their own route. Our import and export guide has the product-by-product matrix. Check it before you buy stock.

Do you need an Advertiser Permit to promote your store?

Anyone publishing paid or gifted promotions on social media in the UAE needs an Advertiser Permit, and businesses should check that creators they pay or gift products to hold one. Gulf News reported the permit as mandatory from 1 February 2026. An Al Tamimi & Company update (December 2025) instead described a three-month grace period after the 30 July 2025 announcement. We could not confirm the date on an official page. The UAE Media Council’s website now redirects to the National Media Authority (NMA), established under Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2025, which lists the Advertiser Permit among its initiatives. Our influencer licence guide covers creator licensing, the permit itself and the official fines.

How do you set up an e-commerce business, step by step?

If you want one team to handle the licence, visas and these registrations, see our business setup service in Dubai.

What does it cost to start an online store in the UAE?

Licence costs depend on route, package and visas. Our mainland setup cost guide lists DET’s fees, and each free zone guide covers its zone. Below are only e-commerce-related fees an authority publishes.

Not government fees: marketplace referral, fulfilment and advertising fees, gateway setup and transaction charges, warehousing, website costs and any service provider’s fee, including ours.

Can an e-commerce company sponsor visas and hire staff?

A mainland or free zone company can sponsor owners and staff within a quota linked to its premises or package. An e-Trader licence cannot. Which visa a shareholder needs is covered in our investor, partner and manager visa guide.

How do VAT and corporate tax apply to online sales?

VAT. The FTA requires registration once taxable supplies and imports have exceeded AED 375,000 in the previous 12 months, or are expected to in the next 30 days. Voluntary registration is possible above AED 187,500. The FTA notes that the AED 375,000 threshold does not apply to foreign businesses, and its E-Commerce VAT Guide says a non-resident making taxable supplies in the UAE must register unless someone in the UAE accounts for the VAT. Amazon’s guide repeats this for non-resident sellers holding FBA stock on the mainland.

Corporate tax. The rate is 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it. If you sell from a free zone, Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 (which replaced Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023) lists “any transactions with natural persons” among excluded activities, with limited exceptions. Online sales to individual consumers therefore do not normally get the 0% qualifying free zone rate. Deadlines, Small Business Relief and penalties are in our corporate tax registration guide.

What changes if your stock is held outside the UAE?

If orders ship from a warehouse abroad, each consignment is an import:

• Customs duty. The UAE government portal gives Dubai’s rate as 5% of the CIF value, with higher rates for alcohol and cigarettes.
• Import VAT. The FTA’s E-Commerce VAT Guide says imports bear 5% VAT on the customs value including insurance, freight, duty and excise. The person named as importer in the customs declaration is liable. A VAT-registered importer that has linked its customs number with the FTA accounts for it in its return. Non-registered importers pay before clearance.
• Who the importer is. Your company, the courier or the customer. This decides who pays and who can recover the VAT.
• Customs suspension. Goods in a customs warehouse, in transit or under temporary admission are not treated as imported while the suspension lasts. This matters if you hold stock in a bonded area and release it as orders arrive.

The FTA guide dates from 2020. Confirm current procedures with the FTA or a tax adviser.

Common mistakes that delay or block e-commerce businesses

• A services-only licence. noon refuses it, and gateways check that activities match the goods.
• Mismatched names. Bank account, ID and marketplace profile must match the licence, or you need a power of attorney.
• Buying stock before approvals. Unregistered cosmetics or uncertified regulated goods cannot be sold in Dubai, whatever the licence says.
• Sales without a permit, English-only pages and invoices, and delivery or payment fees not shown in your terms.
• Watching VAT too late. The test looks back 12 months and forward 30 days, so track turnover monthly.
• Unpermitted creators. Check the Advertiser Permit of anyone you pay or gift products to.

Questions people ask