Mauritania does not have comprehensive trade secret legislation. Yet, there are provisions addressing disclosure, acquisition or use of confidential information in the course of industrial or commercial activities by third parties in Art. 6 of Annex VIII of the Bangui Agreement ratified by 17 French-speaking States, including Mauritania, since 2002. In addition, Art. 388 of Ordinance No. 83-162 of 9 July 1983, on the Establishment of the Criminal Code, punishes cases whereby trade secrets are revealed.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Mauritania to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

According to Art. 63 of Ordinance No. 11-023/P-RM, telecom equipment intended to be connected to a telecommunications network open to the public must undergo prior approval to ensure compliance with the essential requirements and to verify conformity with the technical standards and specifications in force in Mali. Approval is required in all cases for radio installations, whether or not they are intended for such a network, and the Authority establishes the criteria and admission procedure for assessing the technical qualifications of persons responsible for installing, commissioning, and maintaining terminal equipment.

Art. 86 of Ordinance No. 11-023/P-RM establishes penalties for the export or import of means of cryptology without authorisation, with a penalty of imprisonment of six months to one year and a fine of 10,000,000 CFA francs (USD 16,300 approx) to 20,000,000 CFA francs (USD 32,700 approx). In addition, the court may prohibit the offender from applying for authorisation for a maximum of two years and order the confiscation of the cryptology means.

It is reported that the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is USD 20, below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Mali does not have a legal framework that applies consumer protection to online transactions. According to Art. 2 of Law No. 2015-036 on Consumer Protection, the law does not include the protection of consumers for goods and services online.

Mali has not signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Mali has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Mali has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

Pursuant to Art. 9 of Law No. 2013-015, the processing of sensitive data, understood as any data of a personal nature relating to religious, philosophical, political, or trade union opinions or activities, sex, race, health, social measures, prosecutions, and criminal or administrative charges, is prohibited. However, sensitive data may be processed with appropriate safeguards defined by the Authority in charge of personal data protection if the data is necessary or used to safeguard the person's life, used by a non-profit organisation, or in the context of a judicial action.
Processing of personal data is defined as any operation or set of operations carried out by means of automated or non-automated processes and applied to data, such as collecting, exploiting, recording, organising, storing, adapting, modifying, retrieving, saving, copying, consulting, using, communicating by transmission, disseminating or otherwise making available, bringing together or interconnecting, as well as blocking, encrypting, deleting or destroying personal data.

Mali has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open cross-border data flow transfers.

Law No. 2013/015 provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Mali. The Law addresses matters such as data subject rights, data transfers, legal bases for processing, and the establishment of the Malian Data Protection Authority (APDP).

Law No. 2016-012/ of May 6, 2016, relating to electronic transactions, exchanges, and services, establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries for copyright infringements. According to Art. 78 of the Law, when offering a service that involves transmitting information via a communication network or facilitating access to it, the service provider bears no responsibility for the transmitted data. This exemption applies as long as the provider meets specific criteria: they are not the source of the transmission, do not choose the recipient of the information, and do not select or modify the content being transmitted. The transmission and access provision activities referred to in the first paragraph of this article include the automatic, intermediate and transient storage of the information transmitted, provided that this storage is used exclusively for the execution of the transmission on the communication network and that its duration does not exceed the time reasonably necessary for the transmission.

Law No. 2016-012/ of May 6, 2016, relating to electronic transactions, exchanges, and services, establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries beyond copyright infringements. According to Art. 78 of the Law, when offering a service that involves transmitting information via a communication network or facilitating access to it, the service provider bears no responsibility for the transmitted data. This exemption applies as long as the provider meets specific criteria: they are not the source of the transmission, do not choose the recipient of the information, and do not select or modify the content being transmitted. The transmission and access provision activities referred to in the first paragraph of this article include the automatic, intermediate and transient storage of the information transmitted, provided that this storage is used exclusively for the execution of the transmission on the communication network and that its duration does not exceed the time reasonably necessary for the transmission.