The Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act of 2016 establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries beyond copyright infringements. Sections 25 to 30 of the Act protect an Intermediary service provider from liability to civil or criminal proceedings for any electronic information under its service provided that it neither initiated transmission of the message nor modified it and that it was not aware of the unlawful character of the stored information. Additionally, protection is provided if the intermediary service provider expeditiously removed or disabled access to the information when served with a takedown notice issued under the Act.

According to Sections 92-94 of the Communications Act of 2016, All SIM cards in Malawi need to be registered on a central database, and a customer’s national identity number needs to be verified when purchasing, replacing, or swapping a SIM card.

According to Section 52-53 of the Electronic Transactions and CyberSecurity Act of 2016, cryptography services or products are required to be registered by the Communications Authority. Additionally, the use, importation, and exportation of encryption programs and encryption products are subject to authorisation by the government.

Section 10 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (Participation by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) Order seeks to promote MSMEs and the marginalised by way of preferences and reservations. The Order sets a minimum threshold of 15% for the procurement of goods and services and 10% for the procurement of works to be granted under a preference scheme to marginalised groups. To ensure compliance with this provision, the law requires procuring and disposing entities to submit annual procurement plans indicating the value and percentage of procurement contracts intended for award to MSMEs and quarterly progress reports.

Malawi is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), nor does it have observer status.

Section 35 of the Communications Act mandates an electronic communications licensee (Network and Application Services) to maintain a shareholding by nationals of at least 20%.

Section 162.3 of the Malawi Companies Act requires a company to have at least one director ordinarily resident in Malawi.

Malawi is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Malawi has a copyright regime under the Copyright Act of 2016. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 36-53 list the exceptions, which include personal and teaching purposes; reproduction, translation, adaptation, arrangement or other transformation of a work exclusively for the user’s own personal or private use of a work which has already been lawfully made available to the public; among others.

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

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

The Law in Malawi, according to Sections 52 and 53 of the Electronic Transactions and CyberSecurity Act of 2016, requires cryptography services or products to be registered by the Communications Authority. Additionally, the use, importation, and exportation of encryption programs and encryption products is subject to authorisation by the government. In addition, Section 67 of the Act mandates encryption services providers to declare to the Authority the technical characteristics of the encryption means as well as the source code of the software used. Violation of these regulations is a criminal offence punishable by up by imprisonment and a fine.

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

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

Section 35 of the Communications Act mandates an electronic communications licensee (Network and Application Services) to maintain a shareholding by nationals of at least 20%.