Article 13 of the Saudi Commercial Books Law

This article specifies the body that imposes the penalties set in the Commercial Books Law, which is the Board of Grievances.

To understand where this article sits in the Law, the handling of a violation can be divided into three stages:

1. Detection: carried out by employees appointed by decision of the Minister of Commerce, under Article 11.
2. The prescribed penalty: a fine of not less than SAR 5,000 and not more than SAR 50,000, under Article 12.
3. Imposing the penalty: the jurisdiction of the Board of Grievances, under this article.

The practical meaning is that detecting a violation is one thing and imposing the penalty is another. The appointed employees detect violations, while imposing the fine has been assigned by the Law to the Board of Grievances.

The article does not state the procedures for hearing these violations before the Board of Grievances, nor the ways of objecting to what is issued in them, nor the time limits for that; these matters are not in the text. The article also speaks specifically of the penalties provided for in this Law.

This differs from the role of the competent judicial authority in Article 10, which concerns disputes between litigants and the use of books as evidence, not the imposing of penalties.

Anyone facing proceedings relating to a penalty under this Law is advised to consult a lawyer specializing in commercial and company cases to learn the body and procedures that apply in their case.