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

DRC lacks a comprehensive legislative framework on data protection. However, there is a sectoral regulation. The Decision No. 016/ARPTC/CLG/2006 of the College of the Regulatory Authority of Post and Telecommunications of Congo mandatex operators to take necessary measures to guarantee the respect of essential requirements and in particular the protection of data including personal data, privacy and confidentiality of information treated, transferred and stored (Art. 9). In addition, the Law No. 20/017 of 25 November 2020 related to telecommunications and Information and Communications Technology provides that any treatment of personal data shall be done with the consent of the concerned user or on requisition of the state prosecutor (Articles 131) and "The collection, registration, treatment, storage and transfer of personal data shall be done upon authorisation of the concerned user or competent public authority as stipulated in Article 126 of the present law" (Art. 132).

The Democratic Republic of Congo has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open transfers of cross-border data flows.

Art. 132 of Law No. 20/017 provides that the collection, recording, processing, storage and transmission of personal data shall be carried out with the authorisation of the user concerned or of the competent public authority. Moreover, it is prohibited the collection and processing, which according to the definition includes the transfer, of personal data revealing the racial, ethnic or regional origin, parentage, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sex life, genetic data or more generally data relating to the state of health of the person concerned.
Art. 2 states that Law No. 20/017 applies to the various activities of the telecommunications and information and communication technologies sector on national territory and it also applies to any processing of personal data by a natural person or legal entity under public or private law, and by the public sector.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has only partially appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPTC), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Intermediaries are required to abide by the terms and conditions in their licenses and to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigations. Art. 91 of Law No. 20/017, which resembles Art. 50 of the repealed Law No. 013/2002 on Telecommunications, states that the refusal to grant the request of the authority may lead to the temporary or definitive withdrawal of the operating license or to other penalties. This buttresses Art. 4 of Decree Law of February 25, 1961 which provides that when it is a matter of national security, refusal to cooperate with law enforcement implies complicity and "presumption of guilt".

With the Law No. 013/2002 of 2002, which governs the telecommunications sector, the government is given the power to take over the means of communication in the interest of national security. Art. 46 provides that the State may prohibit the use of telecommunication facilities, in full or in part, for any period of time, as it deems fit, in the interests of public security or national defence, the public telecommunications service, or for any other reason. In June 2018, the Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information, signed a Ministerial Order strengthening the control of online media (Ministerial Order No 011/CAB/M-CM/LOM/2018).

It is reported that The Democratic Republic of Congo has established accounting separation by law for the operator with significant market power. However functional separation for operator with significant market power is not required by law.

Under Art. 43 of the Telecommunications Framework Law No. 013/2002, the government may withdraw an operator’s licence if the telecommunications operator becomes wholly owned by foreign nationals.

The incumbent telecom provider, Société Congolaise des Postes et Télécommunication (SCPT), is a state-owned enterprise, which enjoys temporary exclusivity to own and exclusively operate the national backbone. Temporary exclusivity also consists to own alone the reference network to which any operator concessionaire of public service is required to interconnect and through which it passes its national and international traffic.
Therefore, any telecommunications network established or used for public needs is required to interconnect with the network of the public operator through which all national networks are interconnected.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the Democratic Republic of Congo to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

The DRC lacks a comprehensive regime for the protection of trade secrets.

The DRC has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

The DRC has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.