The foundation of Moroccan business law rests on the Commercial Code, promulgated by the Dahir of August 1, 1996. This landmark legislation governs all commercial relationships: merchant status, goodwill, negotiable instruments, commercial contracts, and crucially, the procedures for dealing with businesses in financial difficulty. It replaced the former Commercial Code of 1913, marking a decisive break from a framework that had become obsolete and ill-suited to contemporary economic realities.
The creation of commercial courts in 1997, under Law 53-95, was a major milestone. Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakech, Tangier, Agadir, Oujda, and Meknes now have specialized courts capable of handling commercial disputes with dedicated expertise. These courts deal with actions relating to commercial contracts, disputes between shareholders, challenges involving negotiable instruments, and collective proceedings. Their establishment significantly improved processing times and the quality of decisions rendered in commercial matters.
The Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC) plays a central role in the ecosystem. Beyond trademark and patent protection, OMPIC manages the Central Trade Register, which serves as the identity card for Moroccan businesses. Every company formation, statutory amendment, or cessation of activity must be recorded in this register. OMPIC has also developed online services that considerably simplify administrative procedures, contributing to the digitalization of the business environment.
Law 104-12 on freedom of pricing and competition, which came into force in 2014 and was supplemented by Law 20-13 on the Competition Council, provided Morocco with a genuine competition law framework. The Competition Council, an independent authority, ensures compliance with free competition in the Moroccan market. It can be called upon to address anti-competitive practices, abuse of dominant position, or proposed economic concentrations. For businesses, this means commercial strategies must now incorporate the competition dimension or risk significant penalties.
No overview of the Moroccan business legal framework would be complete without mentioning the three major company laws that structure corporate life: Law 17-95 on public limited companies (SA), Law 5-96 on limited liability companies (SARL) and other corporate forms, and more recently Law 20-05, which introduced the simplified joint-stock company (SAS). The latter, inspired by the French model, offers considerable flexibility in governance, making it a preferred vehicle for joint ventures and entrepreneurial projects that require broad statutory freedom.
