The European Union and France have adopted the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty. The treaty was ratified on 14 December 2009 and came into effect on 14 March 2010.

The European Union and France have adopted the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The treaty was ratified on 14 December 2009 and came into effect on 14 March 2010.

The Directive 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) is key in harmonising national laws concerning trade secrets. France transposed the Directive through a series of amendments to existing legislation in 2018, as well as with Act 2018-670 on the Protection of Trade Secrets. This act introduces comprehensive protective mechanisms for trade secrets, which are considered effective by practitioners.

According to the Postal and Electronic Communications Code, passive infrastructure sharing is mandated in France (Art. 47-49). The operators of networks open to the public can occupy the public road domain by setting up works there insofar as this occupation is not incompatible with its assignment. In addition, co-location is not required but is strongly encouraged by the Postal and Electronic Communications Code. Passive access to optical local loops is regulated by the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse (Arcep) in a symmetrical manner. On copper, an asymmetric regulation applies to Orange on passive and active access.
In addition, Directive 2014/61/EU (Art. 3.2) establishes that Member States shall ensure that, upon written request of an undertaking providing or authorised to provide public communications networks, any network operator must meet all reasonable requests for access to its physical infrastructure under fair and reasonable terms and conditions, including price, with a view to deploying elements of high-speed electronic communications networks. Such written request shall specify the elements of the project for which the access is requested, including a specific time frame.

It is reported that the French State owns 23.04% of Orange SA's share capital. Orange is a major player in the French telecommunications market and is one of the largest telecommunications operators in the world.

France mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. Functional separation is mandated for operators with significant market power, according to Art. L38-2 and Art. R9-5 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code. Accounting separation is mandated only in some cases: it may be considered for operators declared by the Authority to be dominant on the market when ex-ante regulation has not ensured effective competition and significant competition or market failure problems remain

Art. L42-1 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code provides that the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse (ARCEP, Electronic Communications, Postal and Print Media Distribution Regulatory Authority) shall allocate authorisations for the use of radio frequencies under objective, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions, taking into account the objectives set out in Art. L. 32-1, in particular, regional planning needs and the objective of protecting the environment. These authorisations may be refused by the ARCEP for one of the following reasons: safeguarding public order, national defence or public security; the exercise of effective and fair competition for the benefit of users; the proper use of frequencies; the applicant's technical or financial inability to sustainably meet the obligations arising from the conditions under which it carries out its activity; the applicant has been sentenced to one of the penalties mentioned in Arts. L. 36-11, L. 39, L. 39-1, L. 39-1-1 and L. 39-4.

It is reported that the Postal and Print media distribution Regulatory Authority (ARCEP), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Section 19.2 of the SecNumCloud standards stipulates that cloud computing service providers that want to offer services to government agencies and commercial entities considered “critical” are required to store and process the data of the "sponsor", defined as the entity utilising the services of the cloud provider, exclusively within the European Union. In addition, the administration and oversight of the service must be conducted from within the European Union. The service provider must also ensure that all technical data, including the identities of beneficiaries and administrators of the technical infrastructure, data processed by the Software Defined Network, technical infrastructure logs, directories, certificates, and access configurations, is stored and processed within the European Union.

Under Section 7 of the Health Data Host Certification Framework, annexed to the Order of 26 April 2024, any activity involving the hosting of personal health data, whether conducted by the certified provider or one of its processors, must ensure that such data is stored exclusively within the European Economic Area (EEA). If the service includes remote access from a country outside the EEA, this access must be based on an adequacy decision by the European Commission or another appropriate safeguard. The provider must also implement all necessary measures to ensure a level of data protection equivalent to that guaranteed under European Union law, and must inform clients of the associated risks as well as the technical and legal measures taken to mitigate them.

Decree 2019-1590 on foreign investments in France, which amends the French Monetary and Financial Code (FFIR) and was last revised by Decree No. 2023-1293, establishes a screening procedure for foreign acquisitions of French companies. An investment transaction is subject to the FFIR if certain cumulative criteria are met, such as the percentage of ownership and the sector involved. Specifically, this procedure applies when a foreign entity is part of the ownership chain, and the investor (i) acquires control, (ii) acquires all or part of a line of business, or (iii) exceeds the threshold of 10% of the voting shares, reduced from the original 25% by Decree No. 2020-892 and permanently amended by Decree No. 2023-1293 if the investor's home state is not part of the EU. The investment must also be in critical sectors, including information systems security, cryptography, surveillance, digital security audits, gambling (excluding casinos), telecommunications networks, and media (Art. R151-3).
When applying the procedure, the Ministry of Economy considers factors such as the permanence of the activities on French territory, the potential to maintain related know-how in France, the governance structure of the resulting company, and information-sharing arrangements (Art. R151-8). The Ministry has the authority to refuse the transaction or impose certain conditions. For example, in 2020, the acquisition of the French photonic sensor manufacturer Photonis by the American company Teledyne was blocked.

In March 2023, France banned the use of TikTok and other "recreational" applications - including Twitter (X), Instagram, and Netflix - on government employees' phones due to concerns over insufficient data security measures. The French government stated that these apps posed cybersecurity risks and could potentially compromise sensitive government data. This decision aligned France with other Western nations implementing similar restrictions on the Chinese-owned platform.

It is reported that the “sovereignty requirements” under the certification framework for cloud service providers (SecNumCloud) disadvantage—and effectively preclude—foreign cloud firms from providing services to government agencies. The latest SecNumCloud guidance retains foreign ownership and board limits, which would effectively force foreign firms to set up a local joint venture to be certified under SecNumCloud as “trusted” and thus able to manage European data and digital services. These new provisions are in addition to their current use as a de facto discriminatory barrier, as France has not certified firms from other EU member states and from outside the EU.
Since 2016, only four companies, all French, have been certified (3DS Outscale (a subsidiary of Dassault Systemes), OVHcloud, Oodrive, and Worldline Cloud services). It is mandatory for public agencies to use SecNumCloud-certified services. Art. 19.6 of the SecNumCloud requires that cloud service providers be “immune to non-EU laws” established via corporate ownership structure limitations. Specifically, the law specifies that individual shareholders outside the EU cannot possess more than 25% of the company and collectively 39% of the value and voting rights of the company. They also cannot have veto rights, nor can they nominate a majority of members of boards. Together, all of these requirements essentially preclude the majority of foreign-owned and run cloud firms from SecNumCloud certification.