Legal Gaps, Islamic Ethics, and Digital Trust: Building a Regulatory Framework for Saudi E-Commerce Under Vision 2030

Abstract

Saudi Arabia's rapid e-commerce expansion under Vision 2030 has outpaced regulatory development, creating critical gaps in trusted seller verification that undermine consumer protection and Islamic commercial ethics. Despite legal frameworks including the 2019 E-Commerce Law and 2008 Anti-Commercial Fraud Law, the absence of enforceable identity verification standards, undefined platform liability, and disconnection from Islamic trade norms such as amānah (trust), tadlīs (deception), and gharar (uncertainty) threaten market integrity and sharīʿah compliance. This study argues that effective e-commerce regulation requires unified integration of legal enforcement, technological infrastructure, and Islamic ethical principles. Through hybrid doctrinal analysis combining comparative benchmarking of EU, US, and Chinese models with classical and contemporary sharīʿah scholarship, the research examines how global best practices can be adapted within Saudi Arabia's dual legal system. The study proposes a three-pillar regulatory framework: (1) legal-policy reform mandating seller verification through national digital infrastructure; (2) tiered, risk-based compliance mechanisms integrating AI-driven monitoring and blockchain verification; and (3) institutionalized Islamic ethical alignment embedding maqāṣid al-sharīʿah i.e. objectives of Islamic law into RegTech systems. This framework operationalizes ḥifẓ al-māl (wealth protection) and ʿadl (justice) through measurable regulatory functions.The proposed model positions Saudi Arabia as a pioneer in sharīʿah-compliant digital governance, bridging technological innovation with Islamic legal legitimacy to create enforceable, trust-centered e-commerce regulation aligned with Vision 2030's economic diversification objectives.