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Commercial Disputes
Importing from China: How to Protect Your Money from Suppliers and Intermediaries?
Importing from China is safe for your money when two things are in place: a written contract that identifies who you are actually dealing with and what they have committed to, and a payment method that does not let the money leave your hands before you have verified the goods. Most people who lost money to a Chinese supplier or a middleman did not lose it because the law failed to protect them. They lost it because they transferred funds on the strength of a chat, some photos and a proforma invoice, and then discovered, once the dispute began, that they did not know whom to sue or where.
The risk in importing from China does not lie with the supplier alone. The middleman, whether a sourcing office in Dubai, a buying agent in China or someone you met on social media, may be the weakest link: he receives the money in his own name, contracts with the factory in his own name, and then tells you when things go wrong that he was only an intermediary. That question is settled by documents, not by intentions.
In this article, AWADH ALMHEIRI LAW FIRM AND LEGAL CONSULTATIONS sets out where the legal risks arise when importing from China, when your claim belongs in the UAE and when it belongs in China, and what the firm handles at each stage: directly before the courts of the UAE, and in cooperation with licensed law firms in China for whatever takes place there. See: Commercial Disputes in the UAE.
Where do traders lose money when importing from China?
Four patterns recur in China import files, and all of them begin long before shipment:
An advance payment with no security
The first payment is sent to an account that does not carry the name of the contracting company, or to a personal account, which makes it hard to prove later that the factory received anything.
Goods that do not match the sample
The shipment arrives at a lower specification, and the contract does not describe the product in a way that can be relied on, so the dispute becomes one party's word against the other's.
A middleman with no defined capacity
The trader pays the middleman without any document stating whether he is the trader's agent, a seller or a mere broker, and liability is lost between the middleman and the factory.
A contract that cannot be enforced
A ready-made template, or a contract sent by the supplier himself, that names no governing law and no court, or names a forum from which the supplier's assets cannot be reached.
These are not commercial mistakes but legal gaps, and reviewing them before the transfer costs far less than dealing with them afterwards.
Buying directly from the Chinese supplier or through a middleman: whom do you sue?
The first question a lawyer asks in any China import dispute is: with whom did you actually contract? The answer is not always what the trader assumes.
In a direct purchase your opponent is the Chinese supplier, whose assets and factory are in China. That means the value of your contract is measured by whether it can be enforced there, not by how well it reads in English. See: What Happens If a Dispute Arises with an International Supplier?
In a purchase through a middleman, your opponent may be here in the UAE without your realising it. If the middleman is a company licensed in the UAE, or a person residing here, or received the money here, the UAE courts will as a rule have jurisdiction over the dispute with him under the Civil Procedure Law, and measures can be taken against his assets here. That is a major practical difference between a claim run from Dubai and a claim run in a Chinese city.
The middleman in importing from China: seller, agent or broker?
The word middleman has no single legal meaning. Under the Commercial Transactions Law, a middleman's liability differs according to his capacity, and that capacity is derived from the contract, the invoices and the way payment was made, not from the label he gives himself.
Seller
If he issued the invoice in his own name and collected the price for his own account, he is a seller and answers to you for conformity and delivery, even if the goods came from a factory you have never heard of.
Commission agent
If he contracted with the factory in his own name but on your account in return for a commission, he is bound to carry out your instructions and to account to you for what he received and paid.
Broker
If his role was limited to introducing you to the supplier and you contracted directly, his liability is narrower and is usually confined to the accuracy of the information he passed on and to what he expressly undertook.
The difficulty is that most dealings mix all three capacities in a single chat. This is where the firm comes in: characterising the relationship from its documents before a dispute arises, and drafting an intermediary agreement that fixes the capacity, the commission and who bears the risk of non-conformity. See: Cautions of Mediation in Commercial Transactions.
If the middleman received the money and then disappeared or denied it, the matter may go beyond a commercial dispute and raise a criminal aspect; the lawyer assesses whether a complaint is worthwhile on the facts.
The China import contract: the danger points before signing
The advice commonly shared about importing from China talks about payment methods and inspection companies. These matter, but they are of little use without a contract that makes them binding. The firm reviews four points in every supply contract:
Party
Who is actually contracting?
The company's legal name as it appears in its registration, not its English trading name or the name of a sales employee. Contracting with a trading company that is not the factory changes whom you can sue.
Specifications
Does the description work as evidence?
The product description, the approved sample and the packaging, with pre-shipment inspection tied to a right of rejection and not to mere viewing. See: The Importance of Legal Documentation and Independent Inspections Before Importing.
Payment
To which account, and against what?
Each payment linked to a stage that can be proved, and the receiving account stated in the contract itself, so that a transfer to some other account cannot be held against you.
Jurisdiction
Where will the dispute be decided?
The governing law, the forum that decides the dispute, and the controlling language of the contract. This clause in particular is never copied from a template, because the right choice depends on where the other party's assets are.
Drafting these clauses is not a matter of filling in a form, which is why the firm handles it as part of its contract work, and whatever touches on Chinese law is reviewed with the cooperating firm there. See: Drafting Contracts and Agreements in the UAE.
If the product is your own idea: is an NDA enough, or do you need an NNN agreement?
Someone importing ready-made goods fears for his money. Someone manufacturing in China a product of his own design or under his own brand fears for something more valuable: finding his product on sale under another name. The usual non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prevents the information from being disclosed to third parties, but it does not stop the factory from using it for itself, and that is the risk that materialises most often. For this reason a broader agreement, known as an NNN, is used with Chinese factories. It combines three undertakings:
1
Non-disclosure
The factory must not pass your drawings and specifications to anyone else, even an affiliated company.
2
Non-use
The factory must not manufacture the product for its own account or for another customer.
3
Non-circumvention
The factory must not go around you to your customers or distributors.
Courts look at the substance and enforceability of an agreement, not at its title, so an agreement signed on a ready-made foreign template may give you nothing more than a false sense of security. Nor is the agreement enough on its own: a bare idea is not protected by a contract, and a trademark and a design need to be registered at the right time. See: Intellectual Property and Trademarks in the UAE.
A dispute has arisen with the supplier or the middleman: what can be done from the UAE?
The first thing the firm does is not to file a claim but to identify the opponent, the court and the evidence. The next step follows from the answer:
Evidence
Preserving proof before it is lost
Chats, transfers and electronic invoices carry evidential weight under the Evidence Law when submitted in the proper form, and they are collected and documented before they are deleted or the account is closed.
Protection
Preventing assets from being moved
If the opponent has funds, goods or receivables inside the UAE, an application for precautionary attachment is considered before they leave his hands. See: Preventive Attachment in the UAE: When to Request It?
Claim
Legal notice, then litigation or arbitration
A legal notice, then a claim before the competent court if the middleman or one of the parties to the deal is inside the UAE, or arbitration where the contract provides for it. See: Arbitration and Dispute Resolution in the UAE.
China
When the opponent is a factory with no assets here
The file is handled in cooperation with licensed law firms in China, while our firm remains the client's point of contact and follow-up.
The UAE and China are bound by an agreement on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, and both are parties to the New York Convention on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Benefiting from either depends on what was written in the contract from the outset. And do not delay: claims are subject to limitation periods, and defective goods are subject to notice periods that the contract may lay down.
A lawyer for China import cases: what the firm does at each stage
Before payment
A review that precedes the transfer
Reviewing the supplier's and the middleman's documents, characterising the middleman's capacity, and alerting you to what is missing before the money goes out.
At contract
A contract that fits your deal
Drafting or reviewing the supply contract, the intermediary agreement and the confidentiality agreement, not a generic template.
In a dispute
Representation inside the UAE
Assessing the position from the documents, issuing the legal notice, negotiating, and representing you before the UAE courts and arbitration centres.
In China
Cooperation with licensed firms
Coordinating with licensed law firms there on everything that requires action before the Chinese authorities.
When should you contact a lawyer when importing from China?
Before the first transfer, not after it
Reviewing the contract and the account details takes little time compared with a lawsuit.
When the supplier asks to change the bank account
A change of account by email is one of the best-known forms of fraud, and it is verified before any payment is made.
When the middleman refuses to put anything in writing
A refusal to sign an agreement fixing his capacity and commission is a legal warning sign before it is a commercial one.
When the goods arrive non-conforming
Do not dispose of them or sell them before taking advice; dealing with the goods may be interpreted as acceptance.
Legal references
Commercial Transactions Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022
Civil Transactions Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025
Civil Procedure Law issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022
Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions issued by Federal Decree-Law No. 35 of 2022
Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration
Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks
New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958
Agreement on Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters between the United Arab Emirates and the People's Republic of China
Frequently asked questions about importing from China
A lawyer for China import cases in Dubai
AWADH ALMHEIRI LAW FIRM AND LEGAL CONSULTATIONS represents traders and importers in Dubai in supply and commercial intermediary disputes before the Dubai courts and its arbitration centres, from reviewing the China import contract to suing the middleman and claiming recovery of the sums paid.
The other emirates
The firm also appears before the courts of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah in cases concerning importing from China and disputes with the supplier or the commercial middleman.
