Advertising rules for brands and creators in the UAE

A brand in the UAE now has a question to answer before a campaign goes out that it did not have to answer two years ago: is everyone who is publishing this allowed to? Since 1 February 2026 advertising content published online from inside the country needs a permit, and the requirement reaches further than the word "influencer" suggests.

This is what the published guidance says, what it means in the daily work of making content, and the short checklist we run before a campaign ships.

A studio's summary, not legal advice. The rules are new and the detail is still settling; for a specific campaign, ask a lawyer and check the regulator's own pages.

The permit

The UAE Media Council issues an Advertiser Permit, and from 1 February 2026 anyone publishing advertising content online from within the UAE is expected to hold one. As reported when the requirement took effect, it covers paid and unpaid promotion across social media, websites, blogs and digital publications, regardless of follower count or whether money changed hands, and it applies to citizens, residents and visitors creating that content inside the country. Gulf News reported the permit as free for citizens and residents for an initial period, with shorter permits for visitors arranged through licensed agencies (Gulf News, February 2026).

The legal basis is the federal media regulation framework — Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023 on media regulation, with the advertising detail set out in subsequent Cabinet resolutions — which gives the Council authority over media and advertising activity, including on social platforms.

Two practical consequences for a brand:

"Unpaid" is not a way out. A gifted product, a hosted stay, a comped dinner or a friendly post by a staff member can all be promotion. If the content promotes something, treat it as advertising.

It is the publisher who needs the permit. The creator posting on their own account is the publisher of that post. The brand's own channels are covered by the brand's own licensing. A campaign therefore has two separate compliance questions, and the brand's agency is usually the only party asking both.

Disclosure, and why the vague version fails

The purpose behind the regime, as the Council describes it, is that people should be able to tell advertising from everything else, and that promotional material should not mislead. Disclosure is how that works in practice, and it is cheap to get right:

• Say it in the first line or the first seconds, not in the last hashtag of a block of thirty.
• Say it in the language the content is in. An Arabic post needs an Arabic disclosure.
• Make it visible in the format people actually watch: burned into a vertical video, not only in the caption that is cut off.
• Use the platform's own paid-partnership label as well, not instead.

If a viewer has to work out that something is an advertisement, it was not disclosed.

The content itself

A permit is permission to publish advertising. It is not permission to say anything. The parts that most often need fixing in a brief:

• Claims have to be true and supportable. "Clinically proven", "number one", "guaranteed", a specific percentage: each of those needs something behind it, in a file, before it is spoken on camera.
• Health, medical and financial products are a different category. Sector regulators have their own approval regimes. Do not let a general campaign approval stand in for one.
• Prices and offers must be real, including the conditions. An offer with invisible terms is the classic complaint.
• Respect the audience. Content standards in the UAE take religion, culture and public decency seriously, and campaigns are read locally even when they were made globally. A concept that plays in one market is not automatically fine here.
• Comparisons with named competitors are a legal question rather than a creative one. Ask first.

The other consents people forget

Two of them, and both are decided on the shoot day rather than in the edit.

People. Photographing or filming someone without their consent is an offence under Article 44 of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021, with no general public-place exception (Hadef & Partners). A signed release for everyone identifiable, a clean background, or a blur. We cover this in more detail in the piece on photography and filming permits in Dubai.

Music and footage. A licensed track for paid media, not the platform's free library, which is licensed for organic posts and not for advertising. Stock clips need a licence that covers advertising use and the territory. The invoice for getting this wrong arrives long after the campaign ends.

And the location: a commercial shoot in Dubai is a permitted production, which is a separate approval from anything in this article.

What we put in a campaign brief

• Who publishes what, on which account, and who holds the permit for each.
• The disclosure wording, in both languages, agreed before the shoot.
• The claims list, with the evidence for each one attached.
• Releases for everyone on camera, and a note of anyone who declined.
• Music and stock licences, with their territories and terms.
• The filming permit and the location's written permission.
• A named approver on the client side, and the date they approved.
• Where the files live afterwards, and for how long the licences run.

It is one page. It is also the difference between a campaign that can be defended and one that has to be taken down.

For creators working with brands

• Hold your own permit. It is yours, not the brand's, and it travels with you.
• Keep the contract, the brief and the approval for every paid post.
• Disclose the same way every time, so it becomes a habit rather than a decision.
• Do not repeat a claim you have not been shown evidence for. It is your account that carries it.
• Check whether the brand actually owns the rights to the assets it is sending you.

Sources

• UAE Media Council, Advertiser Permit: the permit itself and how to apply.
• Gulf News, "Advertiser Permit now mandatory for influencers and creators for social media" (February 2026): the effective date, the scope and the reported fees and penalties.
• Hadef & Partners on photographing people in public in the UAE: consent under Article 44 of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021.
• The campaign checklist is our own studio practice.