Despite Law No. 1/021 of December 30, 2005, on the protection of copyright and related rights in Burundi complies with international standards, on a practical level, it is reported that the implementation of this law is still poor and enforcement measures are lagging behind. The Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure outline the specific penalties for IP infringement as stated in the copyright law Article 91-94. Nonetheless, as of 2021, Burundi still does not have any sanctions applied in case the rights under the intellectual property law are infringed upon.

Burundi has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

In matters of procedure for granting and administering the patents, Section 468 of the Industrial Property Law requires that "any holder of an industrial property right (including patents) whose usual residence or main establishment is located outside Burundi must be represented either by a legal advisor who resides and practices in Burundi, or by a natural person or legal entity with professional experience in the field of industrial property who/which resides and exercises his/its profession of legal consultant in Burundi".

Burundi is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2019.

Burundi is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

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

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

Law No. 2007-21 on consumer protection in the Republic of Benin and Law No. 2017-20 on the Digital Code in the Republic of Benin provide a comprehensive consumer protection framework that applies to online transactions. In addition, in the particular domain of digital communication and online commerce, Art. 115 of Law No. 2007-21 has provisions that protect consumers and ARCEP (Regulatory Authority) is given the mission to examine consumer complaints.

Benin has signed and ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

It is reported that the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is USD 50, below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

It is reported that Benin’s national standards body develops and implements its own national standardization and certification policy, including for electricity. The National Agency for Standardisation, Metrology and Quality Control (ANM) has a mandate to request certificate of conformity. It is not clear whether tests from foreign laboratories are accepted.

It is reported that, amid Benin’s 2019 parliamentary elections, providers in Benin blocked access to social media networks and communication apps for several hours. The restricted communication services were: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, WeChat, Skype, Tinder, Snapchat. The link sharing service t.co and certain backend image, video and registration services were also blocked for several of the apps. Virtual private networks (VPNs) were also inaccessible in the country, including Tunnelbear, Hola, TigerVPN, PureVPN and the homepage of the open source OpenVPN software project.

It is reported that a basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Benin's law and jurisprudence.

According to Art. 1 of Decree No. 2016-465, operators of fixed or mobile telephone networks open to the public, Internet access and/or service providers must identify all their subscribers at the time of service subscription. Art. 15 stipulates that mobile telecommunication network operators shall validate the encoding of the required identification data before the activation of the SIM card. Subscriber identification data includes, at a minimum, civil status data, biometric data and domicile.
Moreover, operators of cybercafés operating in the Republic of Benin are obliged to declare their activities to the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et de la Poste (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and the Post) via a declaration of intent to market Internet services (Art. 19). Operators of cybercafés operating in the national territory are required to identify their customers in advance (Art. 20).