On 31 October 2023, Federal Law No. 51 of 2023 Promulgating the Financial and Bankruptcy Law (the Bankruptcy Law) was published in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Official Gazette, repealing the prior federal law on bankruptcy (Federal Law No. 9 of 2016, the Prior Law) and significantly developing the bankruptcy regime in the UAE.

A clash between Netflix and Relativity Media in bankruptcy court has made public some interesting behind-the-scenes business dealings between the two companies, and in the process shed some light on the evolution of Netflix’s business and of online distribution generally.