Saudi Arabia to Implement New Commercial Register and Trade Name Laws on Shawwal 5

Riyadh, April 1 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) – The Ministry of Commerce announced that major reforms to the Kingdom’s commercial regulatory framework will take effect this Thursday, Shawwal 5, with the implementation of the new Law of Commercial Register and Law of Trade Names, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Abdulrahman Al-Hussein, the Ministry’s official spokesperson, stated that the new Law of Commercial Register introduces significant structural changes aimed at streamlining business registration processes across the Kingdom.

Key reforms include the elimination of subsidiary commercial registers. Under the new law, a single commercial register will suffice for operations across all regions, without the need to specify the city of registration. Furthermore, the requirement to renew the commercial register based on an expiration date has been cancelled, replaced by a mandatory annual confirmation of business data.

The law also designates the commercial registration number as the establishment’s unified national identifier, beginning with the number (7). Al-Hussein noted that entities currently operating with subsidiary registers will be granted a five-year grace period to align with the new regulations.

Regarding the Law of Trade Names, Al-Hussein confirmed that businesses will now be permitted to reserve and register trade names in English, including the use of letters and numbers—an option not allowed under the previous law, which restricted trade names to Arabic characters only.

The new law also allows trade names to be managed independently from their respective establishments, enabling the transfer of ownership. It further prohibits the registration of identical or confusingly similar trade names for different establishments, even if their business activities differ.

SPA reported that the updated legislation also introduces provisions for the reservation of family names as trade names and outlines criteria for names deemed prohibited or misleading.

The Ministry underscored that these reforms are part of broader efforts to enhance the Kingdom’s commercial environment and improve ease of doing business across sectors.

[SPA]