Complaint Against a Telecom Company in Saudi Arabia (CST)

You signed up for a fibre plan at SAR 299 a month. Three months later your bill is SAR 1,150, with services you never asked for, and the internet drops every evening. You called customer care four times and got a new ticket number each time. Nothing changed. Do you go to court, to the regulator, or to the "violations committee" people talk about?

The direct answer: start with a written complaint to the telecom company. If it is not solved, escalate it to the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), the regulator that the law makes responsible for protecting users and handling their complaints (Article 33 of the Telecommunications and Information Technology Law). The Committee for Considering Violations does not take your complaint directly. The CST investigates and brings the case before it, the committee imposes penalties on the violator, and its decisions can be challenged before the Administrative Court within 30 days (Article 28). Compensation for your own loss is claimed before the competent court, not before the committee.

Who decides a complaint against a telecom company?

The Telecommunications and Information Technology Law (Royal Decree M/106 of 1443H) splits the roles between several bodies. The law text still calls the regulator the Communications and Information Technology Commission; its current name is the Communications, Space and Technology Commission. The committee's jurisdiction rests on Article 28, and the law is in force in its published text with no transfer of this jurisdiction to another body.

How do you escalate a complaint to the CST?

1. File the complaint with the company through its official channel, keep the complaint number and date, and ask for a written reply.
2. Collect your evidence: the bill, the plan terms or advert as shown when you subscribed, screenshots from the company app, and a log of outage dates.
3. If the complaint is not solved, or the reply is not convincing, escalate it through the "Telecom Complaints Escalation" service on the individuals portal of the CST's Mutasil platform, and quote your complaint number with the company.
4. Follow the complaint on the platform and send any document the CST asks for on time.

Detailed response deadlines are set in the User Protection Rules issued by the CST, so check them when you file instead of waiting months on customer-care promises. The company must also keep your service information and documents until any dispute with you ends (Article 23). Asking for your billing or usage history during the complaint therefore has a legal basis.

What does the telecom violations committee decide, and what are the penalties?

Article 26 lists violations, including: giving misleading information to the public about telecom services, misuse of telecom services, any anti-competitive practice in the sector, possessing or selling devices that do not meet approved specifications, carrying on a licensed activity without a licence, possessing a telecom device without the required licence, and any other breach of the law, its regulation or CST regulatory decisions.

The committee has three members and an alternate, chaired by a legally qualified member (Article 28). It may impose one or more penalties (Article 27):

• A fine of up to SAR 25 million.
• Full or partial suspension of the violating service.
• A ban, for a set period, on obtaining or renewing a licence.
• Full or partial blocking of a digital content platform.

One point matters to users: the violator must pay the revenue it made from the violation to the CST after refunding what remains due to the user, without prejudice to the injured party's right to compensation. The decision is enforceable from the date the violator is notified, and the committee may order publication at the violator's cost once the decision is final (Article 27).

What does the committee not handle?

• Your personal compensation: you file a claim before the competent court. This is normally the General Court; the Commercial Court hears claims against a merchant in commercial contracts only above SAR 500,000 (Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation of the Commercial Courts Law).
• Disputes between two telecom operators: they go to the CST for amicable settlement, and if settlement is refused or 30 days pass without one, to the competent court (Article 34).
• Decisions of the CST itself, such as refusing a licence: a grievance goes to the Minister under the rules for objecting to administrative decisions (Article 29).
• Fraud or account hacking by phone or SMS: this is a criminal report to the security authorities, not a service complaint.

A committee decision was issued against you: how do you challenge it?

The decision may be against a large operator, or against a phone shop or an individual found with non-compliant devices. The deadline is the same: a grievance before the Administrative Court within 30 days of being notified (Article 28). Because the decision is enforceable from notification, filing does not stop it automatically. You may ask the court to stay it if carrying it out would cause effects that cannot be undone (Article 9 of the Law of Procedure before the Board of Grievances).

• A copy of the decision and proof of the notification date.
• The inspection or seizure report, if any (Article 25).
• Your licences, device conformity certificates and purchase invoices from the source.
• Proof that you removed or corrected the violation within the period the committee set.

An Administrative Court judgment can be appealed within 30 days of receiving its copy (Article 33 of the Law of Procedure before the Board of Grievances).

A subscriber saw an advert for a plan at SAR 99 a month. After subscribing he was charged SAR 149. The company said the offer had ended.

He escalated to the CST through Mutasil with a screenshot of the advert and his complaint number. If the advert is found misleading, the CST investigates and prosecutes before the committee, and the law puts the refund to the user before any revenue the company pays to the CST.

If a long outage cost him a SAR 20,000 contract, that is a compensation claim he files in court, where the outcome of his complaint helps him.

Practical solutions for both sides

If you are an affected user:

• Record every contact with its complaint number and date, and ask for written replies.
• Save the offer or advert as it appeared when you subscribed, before it changes.
• Escalate to the CST through Mutasil after giving the company a clear chance to fix it.
• Pay the undisputed part of the bill so the complaint does not turn into a service suspension.
• If your loss is larger than the bill, collect proof of it for a compensation claim.

If you are a service provider or a trader who received a violation notice:

• Read the inspection report and the accusation carefully before replying.
• Prepare your licences, conformity certificates and device supply invoices.
• Remove the violation within the period the committee sets; continuing allows the CST to ask for an extra penalty (Article 27).
• Count the 30-day grievance period from notification, and ask for a stay if the harm cannot be undone.
• Settle customer complaints early; treating one customer fairly costs less than a file before the committee.

If you received a committee decision or your complaint with the company is stuck, send us the decision or your complaint numbers on WhatsApp and we will review the deadline and the right route for your case.

This is general information based on the official Arabic texts of Saudi laws, which prevail over any translation. It is not legal advice for your specific case.