According to Art. 8(e)(4) of Instructions No. 1 of 2011 Regarding Protection of Competition in the Telecommunications Sector, the Regulator may require a dominant licensee to implement accounting separation in order to assess potential cross-subsidisation and to help identify other forms of anti-competitive conduct. Art. 8(1) of the Instructions sets out the procedure for determining whether an operator holds a dominant position. It is reported that the government is preparing regulations to operationalise regulatory accounting separation. Furthermore, it is also reported that functional separation is required by law; however, the specific legislative instrument establishing this obligation could not be identified in publicly available sources.

The State of Palestine has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments. In fact, the country is not a member of the WTO.

The country has a telecommunications authority: the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). However, it is reported that the decision making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government.

The State of Palestine has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

The State of Palestine does not have a comprehensive regime of data protection in place.

According to Art. 31 of Decree No. 10 of 2018 on Cybercrime, a service provider – defined as any person who enables users to communicate by means of information technology or who processes, stores or hosts computer data on behalf of an information service provider or its users – must retain subscriber information for a period of not less than three years.
Under Art. 1 of the Decree, “subscriber information” includes all information held by the service provider relating to service subscribers, such as the type of communications service used, technical requirements, duration of the service, the subscriber’s identity, postal or geographical address or telephone number, payment information available under the service or installation agreement, and any other information concerning the location of the communication equipment based on that agreement.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability for copyright infringement is absent in Palestine's law and jurisprudence.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Palestine's law and jurisprudence.

According to Art. 2 of the Instructions No. 1 of 2009 on the Registration of the Data of Subscribers to Cellular Telecommunications Services, all licensees providing cellular telecommunications services are required to register a minimum set of subscriber data for mobile services and obtain a copy of the subscriber’s personal identification document. The minimum data to be recorded comprise the subscriber’s full name, national identification card or passport number, place of residence and work, and date and place of birth.

The State of Palestine is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II). In fact, the country is not a member of the WTO.

According to Art. 24 of the Public Procurement Law, the procuring entity, the General Supplies Department or the Central Tenders Department can only apply the international bidding method in the following cases:
(i) where the procurement is of a special or complex nature, as determined by the procuring entity;
(ii) where the required supplies, works or services are not available locally at competitive prices and with the required quality; or
(iii) where no bids have been submitted by local bidders after all procurement methods permitted by law have been exhausted.

According to Art. 8 of the Public Procurement Law, the Council for Public Procurement Policies must give preference to local Palestinian products, contractors and consultants, and apply a preference margin for Palestinian producers and contractors when evaluating bids in international tenders. Annex (B) of Cabinet Decision No. (5) of 2014 on Public Procurement Regulations further provides that, for works contracts, procuring entities must grant a 7.5% margin of preference to domestic contractors, subject to specified conditions. Contractors seeking this preference are required to submit qualification data, including ownership information, to enable verification of their status as “domestic contractors” under the relevant classification.

It is reported that, although the public procurement law entered into force in 2014, it remains at a relatively early stage of implementation, and concerns persist regarding its integrity and transparency safeguards. The High Council for Public Procurement Policy reportedly continues to face challenges, including frequent requests from certain entities for exemptions to conduct direct procurement. Decisions of the Council of Ministers on tenders are also not systematically communicated to the High Council, hindering the consolidation of procurement data on the designated portal and delaying the implementation of an e-procurement strategy. Moreover, many government contracts involving the use of public resources, such as telecommunications, are reportedly not awarded through competitive tenders, and the resulting contracts with private operators have not been published.