Art. 24 of the Law of Electronic Commerce establishes that providers offering internet access services or data transmission via telecommunications networks shall not be held liable for electronic commercial transactions carried out by users in respect of the goods or services acquired, nor for the information transmitted or its content, unless the provider itself has initiated the transmission, altered the data, or selected the data or their intended recipients.

It is reported that El Salvador imposes an identity requirement for SIM registration. Anyone wanting to purchase a SIM card has to provide their national ID card or a passport in case of foreigners to activate a new prepaid SIM card.

The Intellectual Property Law articulates a detailed framework for the effective protection of trade secrets, with Book III, Chapter XII addressing industrial or commercial secrecy in particular. The preceding Intellectual Property Law, specifically Title Four, likewise established a framework that provided effective protection of trade secrets.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in El Salvador to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

El Salvador does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there is an obligation of accounting separation under the Telecommunications Law Regulations. According to Art. 25 of the Regulations, in order to ensure the allocation of differentiated costs for the establishment of the maximum values of basic interconnection charges and basic rates for fixed and mobile telephony, operators must keep separate accounts.

El Salvador has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

According to Art. 1 of the Decree. No. 808, the Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications of El Salvador, which is the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Art. 44 of the Law for the Protection of Personal Data stipulates that international transfers of personal data are permitted only when the recipient country adheres to the principles set out in this Law or the transfers are conducted through recognised international standards. Where the recipient country lacks an adequate level of protection, the transferring country must ensure compliance with this Law during data processing. Regardless of the recipient country’s protection level, data controllers must adopt appropriate and effective measures to ensure both the proper handling of the transferred data and the security of records at the time of transfer. An exception applies to transfers carried out under Central American Economic Integration treaties, where data transfers may proceed in accordance with the terms legally agreed by member states. In all cases, prior consent from the data subject is required, unless international instruments provide otherwise and such provisions are reciprocally applied among the signatory countries.

El Salvador lacks binding commitments on open transfers of cross-border data flows. Art. 14.5 of the Central America-Dominican Republic-US Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) incorporates a provision relating to cooperation on the free flow of data. However, this provision is not binding; instead, it proposes collaboration on this issue.

El Salvador has been operating under a state of exception since March 2022, which has been renewed on a monthly basis. As part of the implementation of this measure, the government enacted Decree No. 359, applicable for the duration of the state of exception, which permits the executive branch to negotiate and procure goods and services related to the emergency directly, without complying with the requirements of the Public Procurement Law (Arts. 1 and 2 of Decree No. 359). Reports indicate that the absence of transparency in government procurement and contracting processes under states of emergency is particularly concerning, as it has facilitated corruption and clientelism, matters that are of considerable concern to foreign investors. It is also reported that foreign companies have expressed concerns that government agencies are not always providing sufficient advance notice to foster wide participation in bidding procedures, particularly in relation to complex infrastructure works or public-private partnership projects.

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

According to Art. 5 of the Investment Law, foreign investors have the same rights and obligations as Salvadoran investors and shall not be subject to unfair or discriminatory measures with respect to the establishment, administration, use, usufruct, extension, sale and liquidation of their investments.

It is reported that certain restrictions apply to micro businesses, which are defined in Art. 3 of the Law on the Promotion, Protection and Development of Micro and Small Enterprises as having 10 or fewer employees and annual sales of approximately USD 175,930 or less. Investors who start operations with 10 or fewer employees must submit plans for increasing employment to the Ministry of Economy’s National Investment Office.

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

El Salvador maintains a copyright framework under its Intellectual Property Law. The statutory exceptions do not align with either the fair use or fair dealing models, therefore restricting the lawful use of copyrighted works by third parties. Chapter II of Book II sets out the relevant exceptions. These include, among others, that with respect to works that have been lawfully disclosed, it is permitted, without authorisation or remuneration to the author, to reproduce a single copy of a computer program exclusively for backup or security purposes, and to load the program into the internal memory of a device solely to enable its use by a user (Art. 45). In addition, the adaptation of a computer program carried out by the user for their exclusive use does not constitute a modification of the work (Art. 49).
Similarly, Chapter III of Title Two in the previous Intellectual Property Law enumerated exceptions that also did not follow the fair use or fair dealing models.