Law / Kuwait

Electronic Transactions Law, Unauthorised Access to an Electronic Data Processing System

Electronic Transactions Law (Law No. 20 of 2014), art. 37, unauthorised access to electronic data processing system

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

In force.

A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 7 September 2026.

What it requires

  • Do not illegitimately log in to an electronic data processing system, prevent access to it, damage it, or obtain credit-card or other electronic-card numbers from it to steal funds.
  • Reading a public, unauthenticated page without illegitimately logging in to a system, preventing access to it, or damaging it has not itself been held to violate this article.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Private right of actionNo

Criminal exposure note

Imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of between five thousand and twenty thousand Kuwaiti dinars, or either penalty, on conviction under art. 37.

Penalty structure

Fine of not less than five thousand and not exceeding twenty thousand Kuwaiti dinars under art. 37; the same clause permits imprisonment of up to three years instead of or in addition to the fine.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
7 September 2026
Currency
KWD
Fixed cap
20,000

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Article 37 criminalises, for any person, deliberately and illegitimately logging in to an electronic data processing system, preventing access to it, causing it damage, or obtaining credit-card or other electronic-card numbers from it to steal funds, alongside separate clauses on unlicensed electronic-authentication services and forged or defective electronic signatures.

The offence carries imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of between five thousand and twenty thousand Kuwaiti dinars, or either penalty. The public prosecution alone has jurisdiction to investigate and pursue the offence, so it creates no private civil claim. Article 46 ties the law's own commencement to the date of its publication in the Official Gazette rather than to the date it was signed, and the source read for this entry carries only the signing date.

When LexLint raises it

  • crawls_web
  • trains_models

Read the law

Official English translation of the Electronic Transactions Law (Law No. 20 of 2014), Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA)

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