Oman issues a new regulation regarding Electronic Transactions

As technology and internet are becoming imperative in running operations of an organization, or managing online and electronic transactions domestically and internationally, having a strong legal framework to protect the interests of stakeholders is very important.

Recently, the government of Oman has issued the Sultani Decree 69/2008, also known as “the Electronic Transactions Law” (“the Law”). This legislation has been passed because of ever-increasing electronic and online transactions, which also give rise to the many cases in Omani courts. Earlier there were not enough laws to take care of such issues.

Electronic Transactions Law

This Law is pursuant to Article 3 and applies to any electronic or online transactions, signatures or records, and also to electronic messages. But it does not apply to matters pertaining to personal status law, like marriage, wills and divorce. It is also not applicable to many court procedures, proclamations, judicial summons, arrest orders etc. Usually, the Law provisions apply to all the transactions between any persons who are transacting by any electronic mode and their consent may be inferred from their conduct. Any agreement to do any transaction electronically would not be obligatory on any of the parties to carry on other transactions by the same mode.

Electronic communications like messages would also have the same effect legally if all the guidelines under this Law and its implementation rules are strictly observed.

But there may be cases, where there is a particular requirement under any other legislation, for example, the Commerce and Employment Law requires the party in question to safeguard any information or document relating to a specific transaction or an employee. However, this requirement holds true if the following conditions are met:

• The information, record, document or data are saved in their original form, electronically and should be able to prove that they are in its original form;
• The information, record, document or data would have to be retained in a manner that render it retrievable and usable for any future reference; and
• The information, record, document or data would be retained in a manner that helps to identify their beginning point and destination, and also the exact time and date when they were sent or received.

If any message is presented in a court for a legal proceeding, it will only have evidential weight depending on the following factors:

• The trustworthiness in which the message was entered, performed, processed, stored or presented;
• The steadfastness with which the information’s integrity was maintained;
• The dependability of the source of information;
• The reliability of how the originator of the information was identified; and
• Any other pertinent factor.

Though this Law takes care of the services concerning the service providers into authentication in terms of certificates issuance into electronic authentication or any other services dealing with electronic signatures, the reality is that the number of authentication services providers who are licensed by the IT authority in Oman. The Law also covers the protection of any personal data that should not be shared or used for anything except the original purpose for which it was obtained.

In order to deal with the IT-related crimes, the Oman government has issued Sultani Decree 12/2011(“Combating of Information Technology Crimes Law”). This law criminalizes some specific acts that deal with the breach of safety and privacy of electronic information and also information systems, and also the misuses of IT means.

The government of Oman has put in place the basic legislations including the Law and the Combating of Information Technology Crimes Law, which controls the formation and functioning of electronic transactions and contracts. The Oman government has also created bodies such as ITA to ensure proper implementation of the Law provisions and their use and application by governmental agencies such as Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Royal Oman Police. This enactment has no doubt strengthened the use of IT in Oman and it also ensures extra protection to the users. However, recovering for any returns of goods or damages also pose a challenge that is needed to be regulated. There is a requirement to lay clear terms and conditions in case the law is executed in different territories.

All the individual users, companies and also governmental entities will have to develop a strong internal regulation system, which lays the criteria and regulations for their employees while doing any electronic transactions or starting verification process of the second contracting party, so that the protection of data and information processing and its proper applicability is guaranteed.