Regulatory Alerts2024-02-27
Commercial Licensing Regulations (Amendment No. 1) 2024
The Board of Directors of the Abu Dhabi Global Market proposes amendments to the Commercial Licensing Regulations 2015 to significantly expand investigators' powers to enter business premises, compel interviews, and demand document production. The proposed regulations introduce strict prohibitions against obstructing investigations, establish confidentiality safeguards for provided information, and empower investigators to issue non-disclosure directions to prevent investigative interference. Additionally, the amendments create a new cost-recovery framework allowing courts to order investigated parties to reimburse investigation expenses upon a finding of regulatory contravention, while increasing maximum penalties for non-compliance to level 8 on the standard fines scale.