The Personal Data Protection Proclamation No. 1321/2024 establishes a comprehensive framework for data protection in Ethiopia. It sets out the rights of data subjects and principles governing data processing, and it establishes an independent supervisory authority, the Ethiopian Communications Authority. Also, the Proclamation imposes restrictions on data transfers to third-party jurisdictions and introduces requirements to appoint a data protection officer, report data breaches, and conduct a data protection impact assessment (DPIA). In addition, various existing laws and regulations address aspects of data privacy, including the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995), which recognises a right to privacy, legislation regulating the financial sector, and provisions imposing sanctions for breaches of privacy-related obligations. These legal instruments confer powers on several authorities to safeguard privacy, such as the Communication Services Proclamation No. 1072/2018.

Ethiopia has a copyright regime under the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Proclamation No. 410/2004. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 9-11 list the exceptions, which include reproduction for personal Purposes and reproduction for teaching; among others.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Ethiopia. High levels of software piracy and weak enforcement are reported, which can negatively affect digital commerce. In addition, given the lack of enforcement capacity and coordination among Ethiopian Government agencies, IP enforcement is reported to be inconsistent.
It is also relevant to mention that, according to Art. 3 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Proclamation No. 410/2004, a certain work published/printed/released or made available to the public outside Ethiopia can only receive legal protection in Ethiopia if it is published or released in the country. Otherwise, foreign right holders are not accorded national treatment as Ethiopia did not sign any international conventions on copyright.

Ethiopia has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

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

Ethiopia lacks a comprehensive regime for the protection of trade secrets.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Ethiopia to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practised in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

Ethio-Telecom is the incumbent telecom provider and it remained the only provider until recently with the coming into force of the Proclamation No. 1148/2019. The company is fully state-owned.

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

The Ethiopian Communication Authority is mandated to limit the number and pre-conditions of new licenses to be given for investors based on Art. 6.7 and 19.2 of the Communications Service Proclamation No. 1148/2019. In other words, investors can only apply to be given a license when the government announces a call for bids. Based on these provisions, the government has only given out one license to a foreign investor so far. In June 2021, the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) licensed the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (Safaricom) as the country’s second telecommunications provider even though it has not started its operations yet. Hence, the only telecom service provider in Ethiopia now is the government owned Ethio-telecom which has a monopoly of the market. The detailed procedures for getting a license are laid out in the Telecommunication Licensing Directive No. 792/2021.

Ethiopia has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

According to Art. 12.7 of Directive No. ONPS/02/2020, point of sale machine operators are not allowed to send domestic payment information outside Ethiopia for the purpose of authorisation, clearing and settlement. They can only send payment data made through the international card scheme to the financial institution or national switch. Similarly, automated teller machine operators cannot send any transaction outside Ethiopia for the purpose of processing, authorisation and switching (Art. 11.1).

As stipulated under Art. 3(5) and 5(1/f/) of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020, some investment areas such as postal services (excluding courier services) are reserved for a joint investment with the government of Ethiopia, while foreign investment in audiovisual service including film/music production and distribution is restricted to joint venture scheme with the nationals.

The Investment Proclamation No. 1180/2020 (implemented by Regulation No. 474/2020) prescribes a screening criterion on foreign investments in terms of minimum capital requirements. Art. 9 of the proclamation states that any foreign investor is required to allocate a minimum capital of USD 200,000 for a single investment project, in order to be allowed to invest in the country. If the foreign investor is going to work in a joint venture with a domestic investor, then the minimum capital requirement shall be USD 150,000. If the foreign investor is investing in architectural or engineering works or related technical consultancy services, technical testing and analysis or in publishing works, then the minimum capital requirement can be lowered to USD 50,000. This kind of capital requirement is one of the screening methods that the law uses to prevent small or start-up foreign investors from working in Ethiopia.