Company Ordered to Pay $143,000 to Dubai Financial Services Authority

The Financial Markets Tribunal (FMT) has awarded the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the independent regulator of banking, financial services and markets in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), approximately US$143,000 towards external and internal legal costs incurred in connection with a reference brought by Al Ramz Capital LLC against a DFSA Decision Notice dated 13 June 2024.

This is the first case in which the DFSA has sought recovery of its internal legal costs in proceedings before the FMT. The award covers all internal costs relating to Al Ramz's privacy application, as well as 25% of the internal costs claimed for the substantive reference.

The DFSA noted that the ruling reflects the extent to which the FMT accepted its submissions that Al Ramz had acted unreasonably in certain aspects of the reference, including failing to narrow the issues at an earlier stage and pursuing factual arguments with little prospect of success.