There are 25 thousand online shops in Iran which all of them have obtained a certificate named eNAMAD to work legally. In this post, we shed some light on eNAMAD and its origins.

What is eNAMAD?

In the past decade, e-commerce has witnessed continuous growth in Iran. It was in 2008 that Iran’s Ministry of Industry and Mining took the responsibility to regulate and organize the online shops. In 2012, the Supreme Council of National Security announced that the E-commerce Development Center of Iran would be established to be the body responsible for controlling and issuing eNAMAD licenses for e-commerce websites.

Any company or individual that wants to sell their products or services online via its own website, should acquire the eNAMAD, which is the official indicator for an approved and trusted online vendor. To obtain this sign, the vendor should satisfy various criteria. Once acquired, this sign should be placed on the homepage to show the visitors that they can trust the website for online purchases.

The purpose of eNAMAD is to protect users against cybercriminals, some of which have launched false e-commerce websites in order to steal the credit card details of customers.

How to obtain eNAMAD certificate?

To secure an eNAMAD certificate, E-commerce Development Center of Iran requires businesses to meet 38 different conditions, listed under seven categories, according to Small Media. These categories are as following:

• Business Owner: Must be at least 18 years old, and have no criminal record.
• Online Business: The domain WHOIS’s record must be public. The email address of the business cannot be based on public email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook.
• Business Law: The use of any unauthorized symbols of eNAMAD on websites is forbidden.
• Transparency of Sales: Customer should be clearly informed when they make a purchase.
• Customer Service: The website must respond to all user complaints.
• Privacy: The website must take measures to protect users’ privacy.
• Security: The website must regularly check its servers for malware.

The restrictions of eNAMAD

All websites must follow a series of regulations in order to keep their eNAMAD certification. The most significant of these regulations are:

• It is forbidden to sell digital goods or digital media (such as software, films, music and books) without first obtaining permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
• The sale of all medicine and medical goods is forbidden.
• Games sold online must first receive a license from the National Foundation of Computer Games.