Please find below a summary of the document prepared by the realLaw AI team.
UAE: Force Majeure: A Practical FAQ for Businesses is a practical guidance document prepared for Dubai-based businesses by Dubai Economy & Tourism in partnership with Dubai Chambers and Baker McKenzie. It was published on 26 August 2026 and explains how force majeure, hardship and related contractual concepts operate under UAE law in the context of commercial disruption.
The guide emphasises that force majeure has a specific legal meaning under UAE law and does not cover every unexpected event, delay, increase in costs or adverse commercial development. The central distinction is between an event that makes contractual performance objectively impossible and one that merely makes performance more difficult, delayed, expensive or commercially burdensome. Increased construction costs, inflation, supply-chain delays, changes in shipping routes, higher fuel prices and regional instability therefore do not automatically qualify as force majeure.
A significant part of the guide addresses the transition from the previous UAE Civil Code to the new UAE Civil...