TDRA Telemarketing Rules: What AI Outbound Calling Must Respect
TDRA telemarketing rules govern every promotional call made in the UAE, including AI-driven outbound calling. Under Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024, callers need prior approval, must dial from a registered company number, must screen against the TDRA Do Not Call Registry, must disclose identity and recording, and may call only within permitted daytime hours.
- Governing framework: Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 (telemarketing) and Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024 (penalties), in force from 27 August 2024. Source: TDRA.
- Regulator: the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).
- Consumer control: the Do Not Call Registry (DNCR) — consumers opt out by texting DNCR to 2211.
- Calling window: promotional calls are permitted only between 9am and 6pm.
- Overlap: for banks and finance firms, TDRA rules sit alongside the CBUAE Consumer Protection Regulation and the UAE PDPL (Federal Decree-Law 45/2021).
Why telemarketing rules matter so much in the UAE
The UAE runs on the phone. A largely expatriate, mobile-first population is reached daily by banks cross-selling salary-transfer loans and credit cards, telecom operators pushing plans, property brokers chasing off-plan leads, and insurers renewing motor and medical cover. Much of this outreach is bilingual, switching between Arabic and English, and a growing share is now automated. That density of outbound calling is exactly why the UAE moved from scattered guidance to a hard federal regime — and why any organisation deploying an AI voice agent has to treat the TDRA telemarketing rules as a design constraint, not an afterthought.
What are the TDRA telemarketing rules in the UAE?
The TDRA telemarketing rules are a federal framework that defines who may make marketing calls, when, from which numbers, and with what disclosures. The core obligations under Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 are consistent whether a human or an AI agent places the call:
Requirement | What it means for outbound calling |
|---|---|
Prior approval | The company must be authorised for telemarketing by its licensing authority before any campaign runs. |
Registered number | Calls must originate from a local number issued to the company under its commercial licence — never a personal mobile. |
DNCR screening | Every list must be screened against the Do Not Call Registry; registered consumers must not receive promotional calls. |
Identity disclosure | The company name and the purpose of the call must be stated at the very start. |
Recording notice | Consumers must be told the call is being recorded before the conversation proceeds. |
Calling window | Contact is restricted to 9am to 6pm; same-day follow-ups are barred once a consumer declines or ends the call. |
None of these obligations were written with artificial intelligence in mind, but all of them apply to it. An automated dialler that ignores the DNCR, or an AI voice that opens with a pitch before naming the company, breaches the same rules as a human agent doing the same thing.
Does the Do Not Call Registry (DNCR) apply to AI outbound calls?
Yes. The DNCR is central to the regime, and it draws no distinction between a human caller and a synthetic one. Consumers add their number to the registry by texting DNCR to 2211, after which they must not receive promotional calls — even where consent was captured earlier. For an AI calling operation this has two practical consequences.
First, DNCR screening cannot be a one-off. Registrations change, so lists must be checked close to dial time, not merely at import. Second, opt-outs expressed during a call must flow straight back into suppression. If a consumer tells an AI agent to stop calling, that intent has to be recognised, logged and honoured immediately — and the same-day follow-up ban means the system must not redial that person later in the day.
What must an AI outbound call disclose under TDRA rules?
The disclosure duties are strict and front-loaded. Before pitching anything, the call must identify the company by name and state the purpose of the call, and it must notify the consumer that the call is being recorded. For AI outbound calling there is a further, emerging expectation grounded in consumer-protection principles and the UAE PDPL: people should not be misled about who — or what — they are speaking to. Designing a synthetic voice to impersonate a specific human, or to conceal that the caller is automated, runs against the fair-dealing spirit that regulators across the UAE increasingly enforce.
For licensed financial institutions, the CBUAE Consumer Protection Regulation reinforces all of this: fair treatment, honest disclosure and no coercive pressure. The CBUAE's February 2026 guidance on the use of AI and machine learning by licensed firms adds explainability and human-oversight expectations on top — so a bank's AI collections or sales calling has to satisfy TDRA and CBUAE simultaneously.
When can telemarketing calls be made, and what are the penalties?
Promotional calls are permitted only between 9am and 6pm, and a telemarketer may not call the same consumer again on the same day once that consumer has declined or ended the call. Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024 sets the penalty schedule that backs these rules.
Scenario | Penalty under the schedule |
|---|---|
Individual marketing from a personal number (first offence) | AED 5,000 |
Licensed company — first violation | From AED 10,000 |
Licensed company — repeated violations | Up to AED 150,000, plus suspension, licence action and disconnection risk |
Enforcement has been visible and sustained: the TDRA has issued substantial fines and disconnected large volumes of numbers used for non-compliant marketing. The direction of travel is clear — the cost of a poorly governed calling operation now sits well above the cost of building compliance in from the start.
How AI helps
Compliance and automation are not in tension when the automation is built for the regime it operates in. This is where an AI voice platform earns its place. YuVoice runs outbound and inbound voice agents with the guardrails the TDRA telemarketing rules assume: DNCR suppression checked close to dial time, opt-outs captured mid-conversation and enforced instantly, disclosure and recording notices scripted into the opening of every call, and calling-window controls that stop the dialler outside permitted hours. The qualitative outcome is a calling operation that scales in Arabic and English without turning volume into regulatory exposure — the AI carries the disclosures and suppression logic on every single call, consistently, in a way ad-hoc human dialling rarely manages.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI cold calling legal in the UAE? AI can be used for outbound calling, but the underlying activity is still telemarketing and must follow the TDRA rules in full — approval, a registered company number, DNCR screening, disclosure, recording notice and the permitted calling window. Automation does not create an exemption.
How do I register for the Do Not Call Registry? Consumers text DNCR to 2211 to add their number. Once registered, they must not receive promotional calls, and businesses are responsible for screening their lists against the DNCR before dialling.
Do TDRA rules apply if my call centre is outside the UAE? If you are marketing to consumers in the UAE using UAE numbers and licences, the obligations follow the activity. Offshoring the dialling does not remove the requirements for approval, a registered local number and DNCR compliance.
What must an AI voice agent say at the start of a call? It must state the company name and the purpose of the call, and inform the consumer that the call is being recorded — all before any marketing pitch. Concealing that the caller is automated cuts against consumer-protection expectations.
Are banks and financial services calls exempt? No. Licensed institutions must meet the TDRA rules and, in parallel, the CBUAE Consumer Protection Regulation and the CBUAE's AI and machine-learning guidance. The two frameworks reinforce each other rather than cancel out.
What happens if a consumer asks to stop being called? The request must be honoured immediately, and the same-day follow-up ban means the number cannot be redialled later that day. A compliant system routes that opt-out straight into its suppression list.
Building compliant AI calling for the UAE market? Explore how it fits together on the YuVerse UAE hub.
This is a general explainer, not legal advice.
References
- TDRA — Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority: telemarketing regulations and Do Not Call Registry (Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024; Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2024), https://tdra.gov.ae
- CBUAE Rulebook — Consumer Protection Regulation, https://rulebook.centralbank.ae/en/rulebook/consumer-protection-regulation
- CBUAE Rulebook — guidance on the use of AI and machine learning by licensed financial institutions (February 2026), https://rulebook.centralbank.ae/
- UAE Government — Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (UAE PDPL), https://u.ae/
