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

In July 2020, the UK announced a ban on new purchases of equipment from Chinese telecommunications company Huawei as well as a requirement for operators to remove any Huawei components from their 5G networks by 2027. The ban was subsequently added to the Telecommunications Security Act 2021, giving it legal enforceability from November 2021.

The EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) covers traditional broadcasting services as well as audiovisual media services provided on-demand, including via the Internet. Art. 13.1 provides for Member States to secure a minimum 30% share of European works in the catalogues as well as "ensuring prominence" of those works. "Prominence" involves promoting European works by facilitating access to such works using any appropriate means to ensure their prominence. The Directive has been implemented by Member States in different ways, ranging from very extensive and detailed measures to a mere reference to the general obligation to promote European works.
In the UK, the EU Directive was transposed into domestic law through the amendment of the Communications Act of November 2020 (S.I. 2020/1062). According to Section 368CB of the Act, a provider of an on-demand programme service must ensure that at least 30% of the programmes offered are European works on average each year. If a provider does not operate the service for the entire year, compliance with this requirement will be assessed based on the period during which the service was available. Additionally, any period for which an exemption applies to the provider, as outlined in subsections (3)(a) or (b), will be excluded from the compliance assessment. The term "European works" is defined in alignment with the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and includes works classified as European under that directive. Additionally, the UK has not implemented financial contribution obligations for VOD service providers.

The UK Strategic Export Control List is a comprehensive list of goods that face export bans or export licensing requirements. Among the goods that face export controls are dual-use items, including physical goods, software, and technology. After departing the EU, licensing requirements for qualifying dual-use items also apply to exports to the EU.

The purpose of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2016 is to ensure safe electrical and electronic equipment is placed on the Great Britain market by requiring manufacturers to show how their products meet the essential requirements: equipment must be designed and manufactured to ensure that the electromagnetic disturbance generated does not exceed the level above which radio and telecommunications equipment or other equipment cannot operate as intended, and the equipment has a level of immunity to the electromagnetic disturbance to be expected in its intended use which allows it to operate without unacceptable degradation of its intended use (Schedule 1). Conformity with the Regulations can be demonstrated by the internal production control route (Section 40). Internal production control is the conformity assessment procedure whereby the manufacturer ensures and declares on the manufacturer's sole responsibility that the apparatus concerned satisfies the requirements of these Regulations that apply to it (Schedule 2). The manufacturer must perform an electromagnetic compatibility assessment of the apparatus on the basis of the relevant phenomena with a view to meeting the essential requirements set out in Schedule 1.

The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), which replaced the Data Protection Act 1998, incorporates the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which strictly governs the processing and sharing of personal data. The UK GDPR came into force on January 1, 2021, following the UK's official departure from the EU. In the UK, a child can consent to the transfer of data at the age of 13, whereas this age of consent is 16 in the EU. There are further differences regarding how personal data is defined (the UK has a more limited definition), how criminal data is processed, how data subject rights are handled, and how administrative fines are handled.

Section 4 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives the UK police, security services, and other public bodies the power to require telecommunications companies to retain communications data for any citizen. Retention notices cannot require data to be retained for more than 12 months, and these notices can only be issued under specific circumstances relating to national security and serious crime.

The UK Data Protection Act 2018 requires that the appointment of a data protection officer (DPO) is mandatory if the organisation is a public authority; the organisation’s core activities consist of data processing operations that require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale, and/or the organisation’s core activities consist of large-scale processing of special categories of data (sensitive data such as personal information on health, religion, race or sexual orientation) and/or personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences. Similarly, data protection impact assessments are required in situations where processing is likely to result in a high risk to individuals.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives the UK government, including the police, security services, and other public bodies, the power to intercept targeted or bulk communications as well as collect bulk communications data. The Data Retention and Acquisitions Regulations 2018 amended certain pieces of the 2016 Act, raising the threshold for data interception or collection to apply to serious crimes. However, a court order is not necessary in all cases for public bodies to intercept communications data.

The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002, which transposed the EU's e-Commerce Directive into UK Law, provides the legal basis governing internet service provider (ISP) liability, including a conditional safe harbour. The Directive covers any type of infringement of third-party rights, including intellectual and industrial property rights and personality rights.
The limitations on liability in the Regulations apply to clearly delimited activities (mere conduit, caching and hosting) carried out by internet intermediaries rather than to categories of service providers or types of information. The eCommerce Regulations implement the eCommerce Directive into the UK law in an almost mirrored manner with one potentially noteworthy difference in the language. While the EU Directive uses the expression “should not be liable” (in relation to intermediaries), the Regulations expand this phrase into protection from liability “for damages or for any other pecuniary remedy or for any criminal sanction”. As a result, various forms of injunctive relief are excluded from the implemented provision.While the EU e-Commerce Directive is no longer applied to the UK, the latest government guidance states that "the government is committed to upholding the liability protections now that the transition period has ended. For companies that host user-generated content on their online services, there will continue to be a ‘notice and takedown’ regime where the platform must remove illegal content that they become aware of or risk incurring liability."

The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002, which transposed the EU's e-Commerce Directive into UK Law, provides the legal basis governing internet service provider (ISP) liability, including a conditional safe harbour. The Directive covers any type of infringement of third-party rights, including intellectual and industrial property rights and personality rights.
The limitations on liability in the Regulations apply to clearly delimited activities (mere conduit, caching and hosting) carried out by internet intermediaries rather than to categories of service providers or types of information. The eCommerce Regulations implement the eCommerce Directive into the UK law in an almost mirrored manner with one potentially noteworthy difference in the language. While the EU Directive uses the expression “should not be liable” (in relation to intermediaries), the Regulations expand this phrase into protection from liability “for damages or for any other pecuniary remedy or for any criminal sanction”. As a result, various forms of injunctive relief are excluded from the implemented provision.While the EU e-Commerce Directive is no longer applied to the UK, the latest government guidance states that "the government is committed to upholding the liability protections now that the transition period has ended. For companies that host user-generated content on their online services, there will continue to be a ‘notice and takedown’ regime where the platform must remove illegal content that they become aware of or risk incurring liability."

Reports indicate that the Russian state media outlets Sputnik and RT began to exhibit signs of being blocked in the United Kingdom around March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. By the end of 2023, these sites continued to display indications of being blocked within the UK. Furthermore, in March 2022, the government formally requested that social media platforms, including Facebook, X, and TikTok, restrict access to content from these outlets in the UK. Later that same month, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) revoked RT's broadcasting licence.

Under Art. 44 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), it is required that any international data transfer of personal data to a third country or international organisation should only take place under certain conditions and/or with certain safeguards in place. These are further set out in Arts. 45 to 49 of the UK GDPR.
The 2018 Data Protection Act allows personal data to flow from the UK to third countries on the basis of an adequacy decision, appropriate safeguards (such as standard data protection clauses and binding corporate rules), or other conditions specified under the Data Protection Act. The UK has granted adequacy to countries within the European Economic Area, countries covered by European Commission adequacy decisions (as of 31 December 2020), and South Korea.

The United Kingdom has joined several agreements with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders. These include: the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Art. 8.84), the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the One Part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the Other Part (Art. 201), the Free Trade Agreement between Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Kingdom of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Art. 4.11), the Digital Economy Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Singapore (Art. 8.61-F), the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (Art. 14.10), the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and New Zealand (Art. 15.14), the Digital Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Ukraine [Art. 132-K (2)], and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, Art. 14.11)

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements. Moreover, Directive 2014/61/EU on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks is implemented in the United Kingdom via the Building (Amendment) Regulations 2016 and The Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016.