Promotional SMS rules in the UAE: TDRA policy, telemarketing rules and consent records

As of September 2026, a business in the UAE may send a promotional SMS only to people who have given consent that can be stored and produced on request, through a sender name marked AD, outside the 9pm to 7am quiet hours, and with a free way to opt out. These promotional SMS rules for the UAE come from TDRA’s Regulatory Policy on Unsolicited Electronic Communications and are enforced through the mobile operators.

Since August 2024 there is a second layer. Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 on telemarketing defines telemarketing to include marketing text messages, and it places its own obligations on companies. Add the Consumer Protection Law’s rules on promotions and Arabic, and a single UAE promotional SMS campaign touches three separate sets of rules.

What counts as a promotional SMS under TDRA policy

Under the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, the policy calls them marketing text messages and defines them by purpose. A text is a marketing message when it provides or advertises goods, services or business opportunities, solicits donations for charity, or serves any other purpose TDRA determines. The definition of mobile text messaging is not limited to SMS; it expressly includes MMS as well.

The reach of the policy comes from its definition of a UAE link. A message has one if it starts in the UAE, comes from a person or company physically located here, is opened on a device located here, or is received by someone physically present in the UAE. A Dubai brand sending through an overseas gateway, or an overseas brand texting visitors to Dubai, is inside the scope.

Messages that are informational, such as bank alerts and flight reminders, are described in TDRA’s FAQs as not spam. The difficulty is the grey zone in between: a delivery update that closes with a discount code is no longer purely transactional. Keep promotional content out of service messages entirely, or treat the whole message as marketing.

Clause 13 exempts marketing texts sent by government entities, but not charities or any other entity TDRA specifies, so a private business should assume no exemption applies to it.

Consent: what the policy accepts and what it rules out

Among the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, Clause 5.3 is flexible about consent’s form: any type is acceptable as long as it can be stored and presented in tangible form when TDRA asks. The rest of the consent principles are stricter than many businesses expect.

• Transparency. Clause 5.5 requires the process of obtaining consent to be clear and transparent. A pre ticked box or a line hidden in terms of sale is hard to defend.
• Written consent needs a signature. Clause 5.6 adds that where consent is in writing, the record includes the customer’s signature. Paper sign up sheets at a counter or an event should be designed with that in mind.
• Consent is not a condition of service. Clause 5.4 stops licensees from refusing a service because a customer declines marketing, and the same principle is worth applying to your own checkout and loyalty sign ups.
• No consent requests by text or call. Clause 9.2.5 bars a business using a messaging service from starting a consent request by text or voice call. You cannot send a first message asking “Reply YES for offers”.

The consent request by text that the policy does allow belongs to the operators themselves. Under clause 7.4, a licensee promoting its own services may send one consent request, a second after a month without reply, and after a further month of silence the customer is treated as having refused. That route is not available to other brands, which is why consent for your campaigns has to come from your website, app, store or other non text channels.

The Personal Data Protection Law sits alongside this. Federal Decree by Law No. 45 of 2021 requires consent that can be proven and withdrawn easily, and gives people the right to object to processing for direct marketing. A mobile number linked to a customer’s name is personal data, so the same consent record should satisfy both sets of rules. Our guide to email marketing consent under the UAE data protection law covers the PDPL side in more depth.

How long consent records are kept, and why yours matter

Among the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, Clause 10 sets record keeping duties for the operators. For the whole period during which marketing texts are sent to a customer, and for two years after the last one, the operator keeps the content received in response to consent requests and the subscribe notifications. Opt out and unsubscribe records are kept for the whole period of the customer’s subscription. If TDRA asks for evidence of consent, the operator has three working days to provide it.

Operators cannot produce evidence they never received. Clause 8.2 says no marketing text may be delivered unless the operator has obtained the customer’s consent to receive messages from that specific sender, verified it, confirmed there is no block request, and retained the evidence. Clause 7.2 adds that the opt in must have been initiated by the customer. In practice your consent data travels to the operator, so its quality decides whether your campaign is delivered at all.

Two situations catch businesses out:

• Recycled numbers. Clause 8.11 requires operators to cancel consents when a number changes owner. A customer list that is years old will contain numbers whose consent no longer exists.
• Merged lists. Consent is given to a named sender. Numbers collected under one brand name do not carry consent for a sister brand with a different AD sender.

How customers block promotional SMS under UAE rules

As part of the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, TDRA’s FAQs publish the blocking commands, all sent by text to 7726. Understanding them helps explain why careless sending is expensive: one irrelevant message can remove your entire sector from a customer’s phone, not just your brand.

Commands as listed in TDRA’s FAQs, accessed 14 September 2026. TDRA notes that only senders whose names start with AD can be blocked this way.

Beyond 7726, clause 8.10 requires operators to let customers reject categories of text, including marketing messages, through handset features, and clause 8.9 requires sector labels such as banking, real estate, health, education, retail, tourism and charity. Choosing the correct sector with your provider matters: a mislabelled message can reach people who have blocked the sector it really belongs to.

Where the 2024 telemarketing regulation fits

Alongside the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 took effect on 27 August 2024. Its definition of telemarketing covers phone calls to consumers for marketing, advertising or promotion, “including marketing text messages and marketing messages through social media applications”. It applies to all companies licensed in the UAE, including those in free zones.

Article 4 lists company obligations under the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, several of which affect programmes directly:

1. obtain prior approval to carry out the activity from the competent authority;
2. use local numbers issued by UAE licensed operators and registered under the company’s commercial licence;
3. create a channel for consumers who want marketing information, and market only to those consumers;
4. respect the Do Not Call Registry supervised by TDRA;
5. keep records in the form the competent authority prescribes and submit periodic reports;
6. disclose the source of consumer numbers and data if the competent authority asks.

Article 5 limits marketing phone calls to 9am to 6pm and restricts repeat calls. The resolution’s time and call back controls are written around calls, while TDRA’s policy sets the 7am to 9pm window for marketing texts. The relationship between the two for text messages is not spelled out in the texts, so confirm the position for your sector with your competent authority or a lawyer before scheduling sends late in the day.

Article 9 splits supervision: the Central Bank for banks, finance and insurance, the Securities and Commodities Authority for securities and commodities services, and local authorities in each emirate for everyone else. Article 6(4) also prohibits disclosing consumer data without consent or trading it to companies for telemarketing, which settles the question of bought lists.

Promotions, discounts and Arabic in the message

Beyond TDRA’s promotional SMS rules, the UAE Consumer Protection Law, Federal Law No. 15 of 2020, adds two rules that are easy to overlook in a short text. Article 18 prohibits a provider from promoting goods or services, or advertising general price discounts, before obtaining a prior licence from the competent authority. A text announcing a sale is advertising that sale, so the promotion permit should be in place before the campaign is scheduled.

Article 26 says data, advertising and contracts relating to the consumer must be in Arabic, and other languages may be used alongside Arabic. For a character limited channel that raises real planning questions about whether to send an Arabic version, a bilingual message or separate segments by language. Discuss how this applies to your campaigns with your adviser; our Arabic and English translation team can then write versions that fit.

Article 4(5) of the same law lists among consumer rights the protection of privacy and data security and not using that data for promotion and marketing, which reinforces the need for clear consent.

A pre send routine for UAE promotional SMS campaigns

Following the UAE’s promotional SMS rules, this is the order we run before any text goes to a provider. It complements the service checklist on our SMS marketing page rather than repeating it.

1. Licences. Telemarketing approval confirmed for the company, and a promotion permit in place if the message mentions a sale or discount.
2. Data source. Every number traced to a named collection point that the customer initiated, with no numbers from partners, events or purchased files lacking their own consent.
3. Sender match. Consent given to the same brand that appears in the AD sender name.
4. Age of consent. Numbers without recent engagement reviewed for recycling risk.
5. Suppression. Opt outs, complaints and registry exclusions applied after every import, not only once.
6. Sector label. Classification agreed with the provider for the actual content of this message.
7. Content. Arabic requirement addressed, no premium rate numbers, no pressure against opting out, and no misleading claims.
8. Timing. Scheduled well inside the permitted window, allowing for queueing delays at the provider.

How Digital Marketing Dubai can help

We plan and write promotional SMS campaigns for businesses in Dubai and across the UAE, with consent capture, segmentation and tracking built around the rules above. We do not own an SMS gateway; delivery runs through a licensed provider account in your name. When a message needs more space than a text allows, our email marketing service carries the detail, and marketing strategy work decides which channel does which job.

If you are also considering WhatsApp for promotions, read our guide to WhatsApp marketing rules for UAE businesses. For a written fixed price proposal, send a brief and we usually reply within 45 minutes during business hours.