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

Section 11 of the Interception of Communications Act allows security and law enforcement agencies to impose disclosure requirements in respect of encrypted information where they believe that a key to encrypted information is in the possession of that person and that a disclosure requirement is necessary in the interests of national security, to prevent or detect a serious criminal offence, or in the interests of the country’s economic well being. Failure to comply is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment, a fine, or both.

Zimbabwe has no rules applicable to the protection of trade secrets.

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

In Zimbabwe, state-owned companies play a dominant role in the telecommunications sector. The government owns a significant stake in two of the three mobile service providers, including full ownership of NetOne and 60% of Telecel through Zimbabwe Academic Research and Education Network (ZARNet), a government-owned internet service provider and government agency. In addition, the state owns the only fixed-line service provider, TelOne. As for the main operators of the national network infrastructure, TelOne controls about 24% of the country's bandwidth capacity and about 23% of the revenues generated by the Internet. On the other hand, Powertel, belonging to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, controlled 4.3% of the country's bandwidth capacity.

According to Art. 10.3 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (General) Regulations 2018, foreign bidders must be invited when the value of the procurement requirement exceeds USD 300,000 for goods or USD 200,000 for consultancy and non-consultancy services. Below these thresholds, procuring entities may invite bids exclusively from Zimbabwean suppliers.

It is reported that Zimbabwe does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there is an obligation of accounting separation.

Section 3.8 (Content and Applications) of the National ICT Policy 2022–2027 stipulates that the government should ensure that a minimum of 30% of ICT software and applications utilised by government institutions are developed locally, encompassing all national languages. This policy was also articulated in Section 9 (Content) of the National ICT Policy 2016, which has since been superseded by the National ICT Policy 2022–2027.

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, according to Section 36 of the Postal and Telecommunications Act, only issues telecommunications licenses to legal entities in which Zimbabwean citizens hold a "controlling interest", directly or indirectly. However, a license may be issued to a legal entity without such a majority shareholding, provided that within a time period set out in the license, one or more such persons acquire a majority shareholding. A "controlling interest" means that any of the following conditions are met: holding a majority of the shares of the entity; the shares represent more than 50% of the share capital of the entity; the shares are worth more than half of the share capital of the entity; or the shares give their holders a majority or a preponderance of votes in the affairs of the entity.
In addition, the Postal and Telecommunications (Licensing, Registration and Certification) Regulations mandate that Public Licensees with foreign shareholding pay initial license fees in USD proportionate to the foreign shareholding percentage (Subitem 12 in second schedule-Part I). This is in contrast to the fixed scheduled initial fees payable by public licensees without foreign shareholding. By implication, the higher the shareholding proportion by foreigners, the higher the initial fees. Furthermore, the Regulations establish two categories for internet service providers in Zimbabwe. Class A is permitted to offer services like international bandwidth sales, VOIP, and video, while Class B is responsible for nationwide Internet provision. Applicants for Class A licenses are required to pay a registration fee of USD 5.5 million, as increased under the 2020 amendment of the Regulations, while the fee for Class B licenses is set at USD 2.75 million. Licenses for cell phone services involve significantly higher costs, with an establishment fee of USD 137.5 million.

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

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 for commercial shipments (below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and USD 2,000 for personal shipments.

Registration for the ".zm" country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is managed by ZICTA as provided for under the 2021 Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. It is reported that such public ownership may compromise the anonymity of ".zm "website owners, given the potential lack of independence of the regulatory authority. Almost all independent online news sites use the ".com" domain, which may stem from a distrust of ZICTA. The Act also provides a government minister with the authority to create statutory agreements governing domain name registration and “the circumstances and manner in which registrations may be assigned, registered, renewed, refused, or revoked.”. Such direct oversight of local web domains may allow the government to access user data belonging to local content creators and hosts. Moreover, the applicant has to be an entity based in Zambia.

According to Regulation 4.j of the Companies (General) Regulation, a prerequisite for the registration of a foreign company in Zambia is the appointment of at least one documentary agent. This agent can be either a firm or corporate body registered in Zambia or an individual who resides in Zambia.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 provides a comprehensive framework for consumer protection that also applies to online transactions.