🇦🇪How to verify a supplier in United Arab Emirates
To verify a supplier in United Arab Emirates, look the company up for free in the official National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns legal name, licence number, licence status (active or expired), the ISSUING AUTHORITY (which emirate's DED, or which free zone), and the list of approved business activities.
The official registry
- Registry
- National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy
- Company ID
- trade licence number (issued by an emirate's DED or by a free zone)
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- The licence must read active AND its approved activities must cover what the company is selling you: a licence for consultancy or general trading does not authorise the sale of, say, petroleum products or foodstuff.
- The UAE has no single company register: a company is licensed either on the MAINLAND (an emirate's Department of Economy, so DED or DET in Dubai) or inside one of 40+ FREE ZONES (DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, IFZA, RAKEZ, Meydan, SAIF, Hamriyah). The NER is the federal search that spans both, so start there.
- The company suffix tells you where it is licensed and how much scrutiny it passed. LLC is a mainland company (needs real premises). FZCO / FZE / FZ-LLC is a free-zone company, which can legally be a single desk in a shared office. Neither is a red flag by itself, but a free-zone suffix on a company claiming a factory means you should ask to see the factory.
- Never accept a PDF of a trade licence as proof: PDFs are edited (expiry dates, company names and, most often, the approved activities). Take the licence number and check it yourself on the NER, or on the issuing free zone's own register (DMCC members: dmcc.ae/business-directory; Abu Dhabi Global Market: adgm.com/public-registers; Jebel Ali: jafza.ae). Dubai mainland licences are checked at eservices.dubaided.gov.ae (browser only, it blocks automated tools).
- The classic Dubai fraud pattern is the ACTIVITY MISMATCH: a cheap free-zone licence for marketing or general trading, presented by a company offering scrap gold, copper cathode, sugar or petroleum at 10-20 percent below market, with an upfront payment demanded for customs clearance or freight. The licence is real, the authorisation to sell that commodity is not.
- The second pattern is the FLEXI-DESK ADDRESS: a prestigious tower address that is a hot desk or a mailbox, with no warehouse or yard, on a company claiming to be a heavy manufacturer or bulk distributor. Search the exact address: if the unit number is missing or it resolves to a business centre, ask for photos and the storage address.
- A payment red flag that outranks the rest: the beneficiary name on the invoice must match the trade licence exactly. A request to wire to a personal account, an exchange house, or a similarly named entity in another country is a stop signal. UAE banks apply strict anti-money-laundering rules, so a company that cannot hold a corporate account in its own licensed name has already been declined by local banks.
- The UAE is outside the EU, so there is no VIES check. The UAE does have VAT (a 15-digit TRN); the Federal Tax Authority lets you verify a TRN for free at tax.gov.ae/en/trn.verification.aspx, which confirms that the tax number belongs to the name shown.
Sector export licences
Being a registered, active company is not the same as being allowed to export a specific product. In United Arab Emirates, these sectors carry their own export licence or certificate from a named regulator, so a genuine exporter of these goods holds a current one. Ask for it, then check it at the source.
- rough diamondsmandatory
Kimberley Process certificate from the Ministry of Economy.
Verify the KP certificate registration via the UAE Kimberley Process office registry.
We could not confirm a live official link for this regulator, so no source is shown. Search the regulator name on the United Arab Emirates government domain to reach it.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice, and the list is not exhaustive.
Verify it in four steps
1. Open the National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy
National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy is the official government record of companies in United Arab Emirates. Basic name or number search is free.
2. Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its trade licence number (issued by an emirate's DED or by a free zone). If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
3. Confirm it is active, not struck off
The licence must read active AND its approved activities must cover what the company is selling you: a licence for consultancy or general trading does not authorise the sale of, say, petroleum products or foodstuff.
4. Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every United Arab Emirates company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine United Arab Emirates suppliers, not just the loudest.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a United Arab Emirates supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a United Arab Emirates company have?
Its trade licence number (issued by an emirate's DED or by a free zone). Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the National Economic Register (NER), Ministry of Economy and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a United Arab Emirates supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. The UAE has no single company register: a company is licensed either on the MAINLAND (an emirate's Department of Economy, so DED or DET in Dubai) or inside one of 40+ FREE ZONES (DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, IFZA, RAKEZ, Meydan, SAIF, Hamriyah). The NER is the federal search that spans both, so start there.