Got The Message? Digital Service And Recent Developments In Saudi Arbitration

As part of its Vision 2030 program, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) has made a concerted effort to modernise and develop its arbitration framework. There had already been encouraging signs of these efforts bearing fruit, with a 2024 study by the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (“SCCA”) reporting that the enforcement rate for arbitral awards in the KSA courts was consistently above 92% between 2017 and 2022.¹

Now a new country report by the SCCA (the “Report”),² which reviews 967 arbitration-related judgments of the Saudi Courts of Appeal issued between 2023 and 2025, reveals continued positive development of the KSA arbitration architecture, and the important role that the KSA courts are playing in this effort. The Report demonstrates that KSA courts have recently taken a modern and pragmatic approach to procedural matters and the incorporation of technology into the arbitral process. An area of particular interest is the broad approach to service of written