How to check the UAE company register: the registrar of companies, free-zone registries and what is public
Last updated: 2026-09-22
The UAE has a National Economic Register (NER, “Growth”) that aggregates licence records from every licensing authority, but licences are still issued locally: each emirate’s economic department licenses mainland companies, and each free zone — including the DIFC and ADGM — keeps its own registrar. This guide explains what the national register shows, who the registrar is in each case, how to verify a company and its licence, and how much ownership information is actually public.
Is there a single UAE company register?
Partly. The National Economic Register (NER, “Growth”), run by the Ministry of Economy, aggregates licence records from the emirates’ economic departments and the free-zone authorities into one national lookup; how complete it is for a given company depends on that authority’s electronic link to it, which the ministry is still extending. Registration itself stays local: a mainland company is registered with the Department of Economic Development of its emirate — for example Dubai Economy and Tourism or the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development — while a free-zone company is registered with that zone’s own authority. Use the national register to confirm a licence exists and where it was issued, then the issuing authority’s own register for the full record. Neither covers court cases.
Who is the registrar of companies in the DIFC and ADGM?
The two common-law financial free zones each have a dedicated registrar: the Registrar of Companies in the DIFC, and the Registration Authority in ADGM. Both maintain a public register where you can confirm a company’s legal name, registration number, status (active, dissolved, or struck off) and incorporation date, and both publish a public-notices record for strike-offs and changes — which is more transparency than most onshore registers offer.
How do you verify a mainland (onshore) company?
For a mainland company the licensing authority is the emirate’s economic department. Most offer a licence-verification or "trade licence enquiry" service where you can confirm a licence number, the legal form, the trade name and whether the licence is current. This tells you the company exists and is licensed — but a valid licence says nothing about litigation, debts or enforcement history.
What ownership information is public?
Less than in many countries. The UAE has introduced ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) registers, but they are filed with the authorities rather than openly searchable by the public the way some registries are. Free-zone registers expose more company-level detail than mainland ones, yet full shareholder and UBO data is generally not a free public lookup. For risk work you usually confirm identity and licence from the register, then rely on the legal record for behaviour.
From the register to actual risk
A company register answers "does this company exist and is it licensed?" — a necessary first step, but not a risk assessment. The risk question — has this company been sued, lost judgments, been fined or restricted by a regulator, or been struck off — lives in the courts and regulators, not the trade register.
Counterscope starts from the registry identity and adds the legal and regulatory record on top, resolving both into one explainable risk grade with the source evidence attached — so checking a UAE company is one search rather than a tour of separate registers, courts and regulators.
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