Royal Decree 35/2025 was issued on 23 March 2025, published in the Official Gazette on 6 April, and came into force on 1 October 2025. It established the Court of Investment and Commerce, subordinate to the Supreme Judicial Council, seated in Muscat, with authority to establish primary and appellate circuits across the governorates.
For a company waiting to be paid, the change is not in the substantive law — a debt is still a debt — but in where the dispute is heard and at what tempo. Both bear directly on when you reach an enforceable judgment.
A year has passed since it took effect. What follows is what falls inside its jurisdiction, what stayed outside, and what that means when you prepare a matter.
What falls inside its jurisdiction
Commercial disputes involving a merchant
Exclusive competence attaches where at least one party is a merchant and the dispute relates to their commercial business. That covers the great majority of business-to-business receivables claims.
Investment contracts
Disputes arising from investment contracts fall to the court, which matters to the foreign investor contracting inside the Sultanate.
Companies, finance and insolvency
Shareholder and partner disputes, commercial assets, banking, securities, insurance and finance matters, and insolvency and restructuring.
What stayed outside
Administrative, labour and rental disputes did not move. If your disagreement with a debtor is in substance a labour or tenancy matter, its venue has not changed.
What this means for your matter
- 01
A disciplined tempo with a deadline to decide
Published analyses of the law annexed to the decree describe a ninety-day window to decide from referral, with limited extension. In practice that means a complete file moves, and an incomplete one is what stalls.
- 02
One adjournment per reason
Adjournments are limited to a single postponement per reason. A counterparty that relied on procedural delay loses a tool it had been using.
- 03
Electronic filing in short windows
Procedure is digital end to end, with short, fixed windows for filing and response. Having documents ready in advance has stopped being an optional refinement.
- 04
What it does to your decision
When judgment comes faster, the arithmetic of escalation changes: a debtor who was betting on the length of the road now faces a shorter horizon, and that alone is a negotiating point during the amicable stage.
Frequently asked questions
Does this actually shorten recovery?
It shortens the judicial part of the timeline when the file is complete. But recovery ends with execution, not with judgment, and execution depends on whether the debtor has attachable assets. We do not promise a duration.
Does it change the documents I need?
Not the kind, but it raises the cost of missing one. With short filing windows, a record you go looking for after proceedings start may arrive too late.
What if the other party is not a merchant?
Exclusive competence rests on at least one party being a merchant and the dispute relating to their commercial business. Where that does not hold, the competent court is determined by the general rules.
Does it affect the payment order?
The payment order is a procedure in the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law, sought from the judge of the competent court. What may change is which court is competent for your matter, not the conditions of the order itself.