Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The decision to obligate advertisers to obtain Mawthooq license entered into force as of today, Oct. 1, 2022, the General Commission For Audiovisual Media (GCAM) announced.

Mawthooq license is a service launched by the GCAM, which allows advertisers to issue a license that allows them to advertise for ads on social media platforms. Whereas, the license is mandatory to practice advertising for individuals.

The authority urged all practitioners of this activity on the importance of obtaining the Mawthooq license in order to avoid legal measures, which include penalties and fines on the erring entity or individual.

The financial value of issuing the Mawthooq license is SR15,000, and it lasts for 3 years.

Advertisers can issue the license even if they are outside Saudi Arabia, the authority said, warning that if advertisers do not comply with getting the license, it will impose penalties on the companies that advertise with them from the competent authorities.

A non-Saudi advertiser can also issue the Mawthooq license after owning a commercial register, and a license from audio-visual media advertising offices, marketing offices and advertising agencies.

As for the conditions for obtaining Mawthooq license, the GCAM indicated that they include: The advertiser must abide by the terms and conditions for individual submission of advertising content through social media platforms issued by the authority.

The advertiser also must comply with the controls of the content, ads and ratings (including age rating) and the instructions issued by the authority, in addition to undertaking to provide any data, information or reports requested by the Authority from them.

Advertisers must pledge to stop advertising any media content immediately and without objection when the authority asks them to stop, in addition to undertaking not to display any ad except through an account registered with the Authority and linked to the license granted to the licensee.

As for non-Saudi advertisers, they must pledge not to engage in the activity until after obtaining the necessary licenses and approvals from the Authority and the relevant authorities.

It is not possible to transfer the ownership of the license to another person, the GCAM confirmed, noting that the age allowed to issue the license is 18 years and above.

GCAM clarified that the license is for advertisers who advertise through their personal accounts on social media platforms, and companies and institutions are not required to issue it.

In the event that advertising companies contract with individual advertisers, this does not exclude advertisers from issuing the Mawthooq license, but rather they must issue it in all cases so that companies can contract with them.

It is worth mentioning that the issuance of the Mawthooq license includes all the following social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook.

According to Akhbar 24, GCAM has confirmed that the advertiser can continue to advertise on their accounts if their request to issue the Mawthooq license is still under process, with the importance to adhere to the application of content controls.

In the event that the request of issuing the license is pending, the advertisers will receive a message informing them of this, the Authority stated, noting that in this case the advertisers will not be able to practice advertising activity.