Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 3839

Foreign companies. The legislature prohibited them from establishing a branch in Kuwait or conducting commercial business except after obtaining a licence from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Conditions for issuing this licence. The agent must be a Kuwaiti trader and the licence must be issued in his name. Absence of either condition. Its effect. The agreement or contract to conduct commercial business is unlawful even if executed before an official authority. Exception: oil companies. The reason for this. That prohibition pertains to public order. Contravention thereof. Its effect. Absolute nullity. The absence from the papers of anything indicating that the foreign companies have an agent in Kuwait. Its necessary consequence. Nullity of the contract. The judgment’s contravention of this, its assumption that it is one of the agents in Kuwait marketing a project in Egypt, and its rejection of the defence relating thereto. Requires its cassation.