Mawthooq Licence and Celebrity Advertising in Saudi Arabia: What a Company Should Verify Before Paying

The Mawthooq licence is the licence issued by the General Authority for Media Regulation in the Kingdom to allow individuals to provide advertising content on social media platforms, as the Authority states on its official website. If your company is going to pay a celebrity or content creator for an advertisement, the first step before any payment is to confirm that they hold a valid Mawthooq licence, that the account they will publish from is the one registered and linked to their licence, and then to write all of that into the contract.

This guide is for business owners and marketing managers in Saudi Arabia who contract with celebrities and content creators. It explains what the licence is and who needs it, how a company verifies it, what the advertising content must make clear, the company’s own responsibilities, then a list of contract clauses and common mistakes. The information is drawn from official sources and from the Authority’s statements as reported by local newspapers, as of November 2026. This article is not legal advice; the full rules are published on the Authority’s Mawthooq platform, so consult them or a legal adviser before relying on any point here.

What is the Mawthooq licence and which body is responsible for it

The regulator today is the General Authority for Media Regulation. Umm Al-Qura newspaper published Council of Ministers Resolution No. 174 dated 27/2/1445 AH approving the organisation of the General Authority for Media Regulation, replacing the organisation of the General Commission for Audiovisual Media. That is why older sources carry the Authority’s previous name and links on the gcam.gov.sa domain, while the current site is gmedia.gov.sa.

According to the Authority’s page on developing the Mawthooq licence, the updated rules included a clearer definition of the advertisements that require the licence, rules for choosing the name and description of the licensed account, application requirements, and the licensee’s obligations. The page states that the rules apply to all advertisements provided by individuals, and that the licensee must comply with the decisions of other government bodies relevant to what they advertise.

As for fees, validity period and detailed application steps, we did not find them on an official page we were able to open when preparing this article, so we give no figures for them here. Check them directly on the Mawthooq platform before planning any campaign.

Who needs the licence, and who is exempt

Okaz newspaper on 20 August 2023 reported from the Authority that the Mawthooq rules apply to the individual, whether a citizen, a resident or a foreign investor, whenever they advertise on social media platforms, with three exemptions, later confirmed by a news item published on 12 July 2024:

• Advertising an event or activity of a government entity, according to procedures set by the Authority.
• An individual advertising their own product or service through their personal account.
• Sponsorship by those under 18 of educational, sports and cultural activities appropriate to their age group.

What matters to the company here is that the second exemption applies to the owner of the product. A celebrity who promotes your product in return for money, a gift or a free service is not advertising their own product. As for your employees who post about the company on their personal accounts as part of an organised, rewarded programme, we found no official text settling their status; if you have such a programme, clarify with the Authority or a legal adviser before launching it.

Celebrities from outside the Kingdom

This is one of the points marketers most often get wrong. According to what Ajel newspaper published on 1 December 2024 from the Authority, advertising with influencers, whether inside the Kingdom or visiting it, requires the Mawthooq licence. The report said a foreign investor needs an advertising and marketing office activity licence and a commercial registration, and that their ownership in the business must be no less than 50%.

In September 2025, Okaz (12 September 2025) and Sobra (7 September 2025) reported that the Authority summoned five commercial establishments that had used unlicensed advertisers from outside the Kingdom, and referred their violations to the competent committees to complete the legal procedures. Okaz also reported the Ministry of Commerce’s warning to the private sector against dealing with non-Saudi advertisers who violate the regulations, and the Federation of Saudi Chambers’ call on its members not to deal with individuals not licensed to advertise. The lesson is clear: accountability does not stop at the advertiser but reaches the establishment that invited and paid them.

How a company verifies an advertiser’s licence before paying

In a statement published on its website, the Authority directs people to verify that the advertiser is licensed through the Mawthooq page on the “Elam” media services platform. The platform is now on the mawthooq.gmedia.gov.sa domain, after its old link was on gcam.gov.sa. We suggest making verification a fixed procedure before any amount is paid:

1. Request the details in writing: the Mawthooq licence number, the name as it appears on the licence, and links to all accounts from which the ad will be published.
2. Verify on the platform itself: do not settle for a screenshot sent by the advertiser. Search on the Mawthooq platform and confirm the licence is in force.
3. Match the accounts: the Authority requires the licensee to publish ads only through the account registered with it and linked to the licence, and using the account names and descriptions submitted with the licence, as the Authority’s page states. If your campaign is on TikTok and the registered account is on Snapchat only, that is a problem to solve before contracting.
4. Compare validity with the publishing dates: the licence must be in force on every day content from the campaign is published, not only on the day the contract is signed.
5. Keep the evidence: put the verification result and its date in the campaign file; it is what you will need if you are asked later.

What the advertising content must make clear

Among the most important Mawthooq rules Okaz reported is that the licensee must make clear that the content is advertising, whether paid or unpaid. That means an ad in return for a free product or a free experience is not exempt from disclosure. The advertisement must also not contain any of the following:

• Deceiving or misleading the consumer directly or indirectly, or causing confusion with other products, services or names.
• Harming the reputation or interests of companies, institutions or individuals, or breaching fair competition.
• Promoting unlicensed or unlawful products, services or activities.
• Exploiting children in promotion or marketing.

These items are set out in brief form on the Authority’s page and in more detail in the Okaz report. For the exact disclosure wording required (the word “advertisement” or another, and its place in the clip or post), refer to the rules published on the Mawthooq platform and write it into the contract as it stands.

One point many overlook: the advertiser’s licence does not replace the product’s licence. The Authority obliges the licensee to meet the requirements of the bodies responsible for the product or service advertised. Some sectors have special advertising requirements; for example, the Food and Drug Authority, in its pesticide advertising licensing service, requires the advertising licence number to appear in the ads, with specific exceptions including live video ads. If your product is in a regulated sector, obtain the competent body’s approval before sending the product to the celebrity.

The company’s own responsibilities

The licence is in the individual’s name, but the decision to contract, the content and the amount are the company’s decision. From what precedes, these responsibilities fall in practice on the establishment:

• Not contracting with an unlicensed advertiser, inside the Kingdom or outside it, as the case of the five establishments in September 2025 showed.
• The truth of what you ask the advertiser to say: claims about price, discount, results or ingredients are your responsibility before they are theirs. Do not give them a text you cannot prove.
• The lawfulness of the product itself: that it is licensed and approved by the competent body.
• Documenting the campaign: the contract, the verification result, the approved text, and the post links once published.
• Dealing with agencies: if you contract through a marketing agency, ask it for the verification result for every advertiser in the campaign, and do not assume it was done.

Clauses a celebrity contract should include

• The Mawthooq licence number, its holder’s name and its expiry date, with the advertiser undertaking to notify you immediately if the licence expires, is suspended or is cancelled during the campaign.
• The list of accounts approved for publishing, and a statement that nothing is to be published from any other account.
• The form of the advertising disclosure and its place, according to the platform’s rules.
• The approved text or key messages, what must not be said, and the mechanism for approving content before publication.
• The publishing schedule with dates, and what happens if publication is late or the content is deleted.
• The company’s right to stop the ad or request changes, and the advertiser’s undertaking to comply if the Authority or any competent body asks for it to be stopped.
• No delegation of publishing to another person or another account, consistent with the Authority’s position that others may not use the licensed account for advertising.
• Rights to use the content after publication (the period and channels for reusing it in the company’s paid ads, if any).
• Linking payments to verification and actual publication, not to signature alone.

If you plan campaign content within a monthly plan, set aside a box in it for licence verification for every post with a celebrity. We explained how to build that plan in the monthly social media content plan.

Common mistakes

• Settling for the advertiser saying “I have a licence”. Verification is done on the official platform and kept with its date.
• Verifying once for a long campaign. The licence may expire in the middle of the campaign.
• Inviting a visiting celebrity without checking their legal status, which is exactly what the five establishments were summoned over.
• Publishing from a second account of the advertiser not registered in their licence, because that account’s audience suits the campaign better.
• Treating a gift or free hospitality as not being advertising. The rules as reported require disclosure whether the content is paid or unpaid.
• Relying on old articles that still carry the Authority’s former name or old links, or fee figures you have not verified on the platform.
• Separating the celebrity budget from the rest of the advertising. The decision to contract a celebrity is part of how the budget is split across platforms; see where to spend your ad budget in Saudi Arabia.

Penalties as the law states them

We confine ourselves here to what appears in an official legal text. Article 17 of the Audiovisual Media Law (Royal Decree No. M/33 dated 25/3/1439 AH, in the English translation published on the Ministry of Investment’s website, the Arabic text being the authoritative one) provides that, without prejudice to any more severe penalty in another law, whoever violates the provisions of the Law or its regulations is punished by one or more of the following: a fine not exceeding ten million riyals, suspension from practising the profession for a period not exceeding six months, or cancellation of the licence. The fine is doubled if the violation is repeated, continues, or is not corrected within the period set by the Authority. Article 18 allows the Authority to impose a fine not exceeding one million riyals.

These are the maximum limits in the Law, not the amounts applied to each violation. The Authority’s laws and regulations page points to a table of violations annexed to the executive regulations, which is the reference for the details of each violation. As for enforcement, the Authority stated in its statement that it had detected 128 violating advertisements from 94 individuals who advertised without a licence, and summoned them to take the legal procedures, and it made reporting of violations available on 920004242.

Have the rules changed recently?

As of November 2026, the most notable points from the available sources:

• The Authority has operated under its current name since Council of Ministers Resolution No. 174 (1445 AH).
• In September 2025 enforcement began to reach establishments dealing with unlicensed advertisers, not only the advertisers.
• Sabq newspaper published a statement by the Authority’s CEO about forthcoming amendments to the licence, including reducing the financial charge and changing its duration, and a direction toward moving the licence from individuals and personal accounts to commercial entities. The report gave no date of effect, and we found no official text published for these amendments. If your campaign will run for months, check the Mawthooq platform before contracting and at each renewal.

A practical summary

Make verifying the Mawthooq licence a condition of payment, match the accounts and the publishing dates, confirm the product’s own licence, write the disclosure and the approved accounts into the contract, and keep the evidence in the campaign file. And if celebrity campaigns are part of your social media management or paid advertising plan, make this procedure part of the workflow itself, not a step added at the last moment.