1 RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND COMPETENT AUTHORITIES
What is the principal data protection legislation?
The laws in the United Arab Emirates can be divided into
mainland/ onshore UAE laws and free-zone specific laws. The
mainland of the UAE does not have any principal data protection
legislation existing in its own right. Data privacy and protection
is addressed across a number of separate regulations, not
specifically focused on data protection.
Certain free-zones have their own respective data protection
legislation which only applies within the confines of said
free-zone, such as the Dubai International Financial Center
("DIFC"), the Abu Dhabi Global Market
("ADGM"), the Dubai Healthcare City
("DHCC") and the mainland of the United
Arab Emirates ("UAE").
