Article 67 of the Saudi Capital Market Law

This article specifies two matters relating to when the Capital Market Law begins to apply:

• Publication: the law is published in the Official Gazette.
• Start of application: the law takes effect after 180 days from the date of its publication, not from the date of its issue.

The practical purpose of this period is to give the bodies concerned time to prepare before the provisions of the law become binding. This is consistent with Article 66, which requires the implementing regulations to be issued within 150 days of the date the law is published and provides that they take effect when it does. The regulations must therefore be issued within a period that ends before the date the law takes effect, and then they and the law start to apply at the same time.

This article means that the provisions of the law did not become applicable on publication alone, but after the stated period had passed. The article does not give the date of publication itself, nor does it address the effect of amendments made to the law later.

Anyone who needs to determine whether a provision of the law applies to an act or dealing on a given date would be well advised to refer to the date of publication in the Official Gazette and count the period, or to consult a lawyer specializing in securities and capital markets.