Saudi Anti-Concealment (Tasattur) Law: A Guide for Foreign Sellers

Tasattur is Saudi Arabia's word for a front-man business. A non-Saudi runs the shop, keeps the profit, and a Saudi lends the name and the CR.

It's a serious crime. The 2020 Anti-Concealment Law punishes it with prison, multi-million-riyal fines and deportation.

Here's the good news. You don't need a borrowed CR to sell in Saudi Arabia, one of the fastest-growing ecommerce markets in the world. There are several legal routes, and some take only weeks.

Know where the line sits, and you can grow in Saudi Arabia without ever going near it.

What is tasattur?

Tasattur (التستر التجاري, "commercial concealment") is any deal that lets a non-Saudi run an economic activity they aren't licensed for, using a Saudi person's licence, name or commercial registration. A CR (commercial registration) is the Saudi business licence every trading business needs.

The classic case looks like this:

• A Saudi citizen registers a business in their own name.
• A non-Saudi runs it day to day, controls the money and keeps the profit.
• The Saudi gets a fixed monthly or yearly fee for the use of their name.

On paper, it's a Saudi business. In reality, it's a foreign one that skipped investment registration.

Why does Saudi Arabia care so much? Concealed businesses dodge foreign-investment rules, hide income from tax and push out genuine Saudi entrepreneurs. Fighting tasattur is a national programme, run by the Ministry of Commerce with around a dozen other agencies.

What does the 2020 Anti-Concealment Law say?

The current law was issued by royal decree in August 2020. It replaced an older 2004 law, and the ban itself goes back to 1989.

The law makes three groups liable:

1. The Saudi enabler. Anyone who lets a non-Saudi use their CR, licence or name.
2. The non-Saudi operator. The person who actually runs the business for their own account.
3. Accomplices. Anyone who helps set it up or hide it, including advisers.

It also lists lesser violations that don't need a full front-man deal. Two matter most for online sellers:

• Giving a non-Saudi unrestricted control of a business, such as its bank tokens, payment-gateway logins or signing authority, without legal grounds.
• Using a bank account that isn't the business's own to collect or pay business money.

Want to see how a legal Saudi business is set up instead? Start with our guide to Saudi business registration.

What are the penalties for tasattur?

Concealment is punished with up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to SAR 5 million, or both. Repeat offenders within 3 years face double.

A conviction also brings:

• Confiscation of the proceeds, or other assets of equal value if the proceeds are gone.
• Deportation of the non-Saudi once the sentence is served and dues are paid, with a ban on re-entering the Kingdom.
• Dissolution of the business, with its licences cancelled and its CR struck off.
• A 5-year ban on the convicted person running that activity or any other commercial work.
• Joint liability for the business's unpaid zakat, taxes and government fees.
• Publication of a summary of the final judgment by the ministry.

The lesser violations under Article 4 carry a fine of up to SAR 500,000. The business can also be closed for up to 90 days.

How do authorities spot concealment?

The national anti-concealment programme follows the money. Most cases start with data, not a tip-off.

Three things make concealment easy to spot:

• Mandatory e-payment. Since 2020, every retail outlet in Saudi Arabia must offer electronic payment, such as mada cards and Apple Pay. Card and POS (point-of-sale) data show what a business really sells.
• Bank monitoring. SAMA, the Saudi Central Bank, tracks suspicious transaction patterns alongside money-laundering checks.
• Data analysis first. The ministry matches payment, bank, tax and labour data, then sends inspection teams to the businesses that don't add up.

These are the patterns investigators look for:

• Revenue that doesn't match the business's declared size or VAT returns.
• Takings that end up in a non-Saudi's personal account, or move abroad straight away.
• A Saudi owner who receives a flat fee instead of business profit.
• A non-Saudi holding blank cheques, a general power of attorney or the online banking tokens.
• Cash-heavy sales with few card transactions.
• Store, app or marketplace accounts registered to one person and run by another.

Ecommerce leaves a bigger paper trail than a corner shop. Every gateway payout, shipping label and ad invoice links back to a name.

Is there still a correction period?

No. The correction period closed on 16 February 2022, and the ministry said it wouldn't be extended again.

The law gave violators a one-time chance to fix their status without penalties. Here's how that played out:

If someone offers you a "tasattur amnesty" today, ask them to show you the official ministry announcement. There hasn't been one since 2022.

How does tasattur affect foreign ecommerce sellers?

Tasattur isn't just a corner-shop problem. Online sellers face it whenever they try to shortcut the Saudi paperwork.

The "borrowed CR" store

This is the most common trap. A foreign brand wants a local Salla or Zid store, a mada-enabled payment gateway or a Saudi marketplace account, and a Saudi friend offers their CR or freelance document.

It's concealment if:

• you control the store, the stock and the gateway login;
• sales money flows to you, not to the CR holder's business; and
• the CR holder gets a fee for the use of their name.

Payment is where it usually breaks. Gateways and banks onboard the CR holder, so the payouts land in a Saudi account you don't legally own. Moving that money to you is exactly the bank-account violation in Article 4.

There's a second trap. The law makes any contract aimed at concealment void, so your side deal with the CR holder gives you no legal claim to the store, the stock or the cash.

Our guide to accepting mada as a foreign company shows the legal ways to take local cards.

Importer-of-record arrangements

An importer of record (IOR) is the company named on the customs declaration. It's responsible for duties, VAT and product compliance.

A licensed IOR service is legal. It imports in its own name, under its own CR, for a fee. What matters is who trades:

See how real IOR services work in our importer of record guide.

Distributor deals done right

A distributor buys your goods and resells them in Saudi Arabia under its own CR. You're a supplier, not a hidden owner.

To keep it clean:

• Sell at a wholesale price. The distributor pays your invoices and sets its own retail prices.
• Let the distributor hold the licences. It holds the CR, VAT number, SABER certificates and SFDA registrations.
• Sign a proper contract. Use a written distribution or commercial agency agreement, which Saudi law recognises.
• Keep your control commercial. Brand guidelines and minimum orders are fine. Logging into their bank isn't.

A worked example

A UK skincare brand has SAR 80,000 a month in Saudi demand. It weighs two setups.

Setup A (concealment). A Saudi friend opens a Salla store on his freelance document. The brand ships stock, runs the store and pays the friend SAR 3,000 a month. Customer payments land in the friend's account, then get wired to the UK.

Over a year, that's SAR 960,000 of sales through a personal account and SAR 36,000 in name fees. Every red flag is there: a fixed fee, a non-owner in control and money moving through the wrong account.

Setup B (legal). A Riyadh beauty distributor buys stock at wholesale and holds the SFDA registrations. It sells on its own Salla store and on Amazon.sa. The brand invoices the distributor and earns its wholesale margin, with no exposure in Saudi Arabia.

Setup B earns less per unit. But it's legal, it scales across marketplaces, and the brand can move to its own company later.

What are the legal ways to sell in Saudi Arabia?

You have four solid alternatives, from quickest to most involved:

	Marketplace cross-border	IOR partner	Saudi distributor	Own MISA company
Saudi entity needed?
Who trades in Saudi?	You, via the marketplace	You; IOR handles imports	The distributor	Your company
Time to start	Weeks	Weeks	1–3 months	2–4 months
Control of brand and pricing	High	High	Medium	Full
Best for	Testing demand	Local stock and fast delivery	Regulated goods and retail reach	Long-term scale

• Marketplace cross-border. Amazon Global Selling and noon's cross-border programmes let foreign companies sell to Saudi shoppers without a local entity. See selling on noon as a foreign company.
• IOR partner. A licensed importer of record clears your stock into Saudi warehouses, so you get fast local delivery.
• Saudi distributor. The best route for regulated products that need local registrations.
• Your own company. Register with MISA, the Ministry of Investment, then get your CR. A 100% foreign trading company needs SAR 30 million in capital, so most sellers start with the other routes first. Our MISA investment registration guide walks you through it.

Not sure which fits? The full comparison is in our guide to foreign company requirements in Saudi Arabia.

Whistleblower rewards

The law rewards people who report concealment. A whistleblower can get up to 30% of the fine collected, once the judgment or decision is final. The reward goes to people who weren't convicted in the case.

The ministry keeps the reporter's identity in a confidential record, separate from the case file. That's why ex-employees, rivals and unhappy partners are a real source of cases.

For a foreign seller, the lesson is simple. A borrowed-CR deal depends on everyone involved staying happy and silent, for years.

Notes for Chinese sellers

• Agents in Yiwu, Guangzhou and Dubai sometimes offer a "ready Saudi store" on a local person's CR. Treat that as a front-man offer and walk away.
• Factories have a clean route: sell wholesale to a Saudi distributor, or ship through noon Global or Amazon Global Selling.
• For a company of your own, see company setup in Saudi Arabia for Chinese businesses.

Notes for expats living in Saudi Arabia

• The freelance document is for Saudi citizens only. Using a Saudi friend's document for your side business is concealment.
• Your legal options are MISA registration (including through Premium Residency) or a salaried role in a properly registered company.
• Selling on a Saudi marketplace as a resident still needs a CR in your own name. For a non-Saudi, that means a MISA-registered company.

Notes for UAE-based companies

• A UAE company can sell into Saudi Arabia through noon's UAE-to-KSA Global store without a Saudi CR.
• For local Saudi stock, use an IOR partner or a distributor rather than a Saudi friend's CR.
• When you're ready, a UAE parent can register a Saudi subsidiary with MISA.