Kuwait’s Delivery-App Commission Caps Hold After a Court Annuls Their Penalty Clause

Kuwait’s caps on what delivery apps can charge restaurants and customers remain in force after the Administrative Court annulled the penalty clause of the decision behind them. The court, a court of first instance, ruled on 27 September in a case brought by the delivery app talabat, Kuwait Times reported. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry can appeal.

How the rules arrived

The framework came in two steps. Ministerial Decision No. 10 of 2026, announced in early February, regulated restaurant and ready-made food delivery through electronic platforms; the ministry called it the first measure of its kind in the GCC, according to Gulf News. It required each platform to adopt a single annual tariff approved by the ministry, banned forced exclusivity and let restaurants work with more than one platform.

In July, Decision No. 109 of 2026 replaced it with a broader framework for every licensed platform that connects businesses with consumers, including restaurants, cafés, grocers, pharmacies and retailers. Kuwait Times reported that it took effect on 9 July. Platforms had until 1 September to align their contracts and to change their licensed activity to the management of delivery services via electronic platforms.

What the caps say

Platforms that provide delivery may charge merchants a commission of up to 17 per cent. Where a merchant delivers with its own couriers, the ceiling is 10 per cent. The delivery fee paid by customers is capped at KD 1 per order, and platforms may not add operational, processing or other administrative charges. Kuwait Times noted that some platforms had been charging commissions of up to 35 per cent; its later report put the earlier range at 20 to 35 per cent.

What the ruling removes

Article 15 set graduated penalties: for platforms, from warnings to closure and permanent bans; for merchants, from warnings and suspensions, including removal from delivery platforms, to licence revocation. The court said the minister can regulate services and issue implementing decisions but cannot create new punitive administrative penalties without an explicit legislative basis, and that existing legislation already covers penalties for regulatory and pricing violations. The caps and the ban on extra charges stand. The court rejected talabat’s other requests.

Restaurants and delivery firms

Restaurant owners welcomed the rules, Kuwait Times reported on 29 August. Khalid Hussein, a financial manager in the sector, said profitability would shift from the platforms back to restaurants. Fahad Al-Arbash, chairman of the Restaurants, Cafes and Catering Services Federation, said one group with four or five branches had paid platforms about KD 400,000 in a year. Neither expected lower prices for customers.

Third-party delivery companies, which supply the drivers and vehicles, say the framework does not cover them, and some platforms are reported to have begun revising contracts to lower per-order payments to fleet providers. Coops Delivery, a platform that charges merchants no commission, said the KD 1 cap was a challenge for a model built on delivery fees. After the ruling, Hussein said compliance had been slow since 1 September and worried that enforcement would weaken without penalties.

For the scale of the delivery market on the Saudi side of the Gulf, see our report on 118 million delivery orders in one quarter.

Sources & fact-check6

1. Court strikes down delivery penalties, raising fears of weak enforcementKuwait Times, 27 September 2026
2. New delivery rules put platforms, delivery companies to the testKuwait Times, 29 August 2026
3. New rules cap delivery fees at KD 1, limit app commissionsKuwait Times, 14 July 2026
4. Kuwait issues new rules for e-delivery platformsARY News, 14 July 2026
5. Kuwait tightens rules on food delivery apps, fixes fees, bans exclusivityGulf News, 3 February 2026
6. Kuwait issues order to cap delivery platform feesVerdict Food Service, 2 February 2026

Every name, number and date in this story was checked against the sources above before publication. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we correct errors openly. See our editorial standards.