OMAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohammed Al Khalili, Jenna Al Bakry, Joud Lashko and Abdullah Al Raiisi, Al Khalili, Al Ghailani & Co LLP
in which the value of the claim exceeds OMR30,000. However, this is restricted to civil, commercial and tax claims. 3.4 Class Members, Size and Mechanism – Opting In or Out As there is no specific legislation directly concern- ing collective redress and class actions, there are no specific restrictions as to who belongs to a relevant class, no limitations on the size of the class, and no regulations when it comes to the mechanism for join- ing the action. In terms of determining of who belongs to a relevant class for the purposes of collective redress/class action litigation in Oman, parties must be directly affected by or should have a legal interest in the class action. In all cases, the court of jurisdiction has a right and responsibility to consider relevancy. As stated previously, there are no current regulations determining the size of classes. At the time of writing (autumn 2025), there have not been any restrictions put in place limiting the number within a class in a collective redress/class action claim. As regards the mechanism for joining a collective redress/class action litigation (ie, opting in or opting out), even though there are no specific details con- cerning collective redress and class actions, the CCPL governs certain matters related to the claimant adding a defendant during the court proceedings. Article 117 of the CPPL states: “Subject to the provisions of Arti- cle 67, a litigant may include into the lawsuit any per- son who can be validly sued at filing, by the ordinary procedures for filing the lawsuit before the day of the hearing. The court may, even of its own initiative, order the inclusion of any person it considers to include in the interest of justice or to reveal the truth. The court shall set a date for the appearance of those it orders to be included and those included by the litigants.” 3.5 Joinder As explained in 3.4 Class Members, Size and Mecha- nism – Opting In or Out , the CCPL governs all proce- dural matters related to the joinder of additional parties to ongoing cases in Oman. This regulatory framework
applies to all civil and commercial cases and is not specific to collective redress and class action cases. Article 121 of the CCPL states: “The court shall rule on every dispute related to the admissibility of interven- tion. If the court considers that the request for inclu- sion or intervention is not based on a serious interest or is only intended to delay ruling on the lawsuit, it shall decide to reject the request. In all cases, inter- vention does not result in adjourning the judgment in the original lawsuit if it is valid for judgment. The court shall rule on the substance of requests for inter- vention with the original lawsuit whenever possible[;] otherwise, it shall retain the request for intervention to rule on it after its investigation.” As such, the joining claimant must submit a request to join the class action ‒ submitting the request and all required documents as per the procedure required to file the claim ‒ and the court will have the discretion to approve or deny the request of the joining claimant. 3.6 Case Management Powers of Courts In the absence of specific regulations governing col- lective redress and class actions in Oman, the courts exercise their case management powers ‒ in respect of all types of cases (including collective redress/class actions) – under the framework of general laws and regulations, based on the jurisdiction of each case. Such management powers cover urgency, procedural corrections, and service and notifications. Under the CCPL, the court has the authority to desig- nate cases as urgent ‒ allowing for expedited timelines both in the issuance of judgments and the execution of decisions ‒ where the nature of the dispute requires swift resolution. The court also retains the right to amend errors and correct procedural inaccuracies in filings or proceedings. The court may also assume responsibility for notifying the defendants of the claim; however, this matter is taken on a case-by-case basis. 3.7 Length and Timetable for Proceedings In general, the timeline and timetable for completing collective redress and class actions have not been determined in Oman. Previous experience suggests that collective redress and class actions can differ drastically in terms of the length of proceedings; as such, they are taken on a case-by-case basis.
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