According to Art. 5(1/f/) and 5.2 of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020, foreign share capital in audiovisual services, including film/music production and distribution, is capped at 49%. It is not clear whether this restriction also applies online.

Art. 5 (1/e/) of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020 (which implements the Investment Proclamation No. 1180/2020) reserves some areas of investment including advertisement and promotion for joint investment with domestic investors only. In other words, a foreign investor can only invest in the advertisement service sector in joint venture with an Ethiopian domestic investor. The scope of the law includes advertisement disseminated through the internet website being designed in Ethiopia or abroad (Section 3.3). Previously there was a ban to foreign investment in the advertising sector.

Law No. 358-05 provides a comprehensive framework for consumer protection that also applies to online transactions.

Dominican Republic has signed and ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Dominican Republic has adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Dominican Republic has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

According to Art. 29 of Law No. 183-02, foreign exchange brokerage may only be carried out by authorised financial brokerage entities and by Exchange Agents. Art. 30 states that to be an Exchange Agent, it is necessary to be constituted as a joint stock company organised in accordance with the laws of the Dominican Republic, with the objects clause and the exclusive habitual activity of carrying out exchange intermediation in free market conditions in the national territory, as well as abroad under the modality of remittance company.

According to Decree No. 402-05 approving the Regulations for the Express Dispatch of Shipments, the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is USD 200, following the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Self-certification is allowed for foreign businesses. According to Chapter IX of the Telecommunications Law, Art. 61, any terminal, equipment or system likely to be connected to a public telecommunications network, or which uses the public telecommunications network, or which uses the public radio-electric domain, must have the corresponding homologation certificate. It is reported that the following products require INDOTEL’s approval: Tablets; Personal trackers; Wireless microphones; 3G/4G mobile phones; RFID equipment; Radio alarms; Laptops.

Law No. 20-00 provides a framework for effective protection of trade secrets. Chapters I and II of Title VI include a definition and conditions to protect a secret, what constitutes unfair competition related to trade secrets, what are the unfair means of access to a trade secret, information for sales authorisation and the actions that may be brought against this act of unfair competition.

There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised both in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements. According to Art. 5 of the Infrastructure Sharing Regulation, passive infrastructure providers shall share passive infrastructures or related facilities requested by the requesting providers, provided that such sharing is feasible from the technical, security and operational point of view. Such sharing shall be done in a non-discriminatory manner at fair and reasonable prices and conditions. Infrastructure owners shall facilitate access to such infrastructure on equal, transparent and non-discriminatory terms to providers that install or operate public telecommunications networks. Infrastructure sharing is effective in both the mobile and fixed sectors.

The Dominican Republic does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there has been an obligation to separate the accounts since 2019. According to Art. 30 of the Law No. 153/1998 - General Telecommunications Law (Ley No. 153/1998 - Ley General de las Telecomunicaciones), in case a concessionaire provides several public telecommunications services, it must keep separate accounts for each service, in order to enable the control of fair and effective competition.

The Dominican Republic has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

According to Art. 76 of the General Telecommunications law, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Under Art. 80 of Law No. 172-13, personal data may only be transferred internationally if the owner of the data expressly authorises such transfer or if such transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between the owner of the data and the person or entity responsible for the treatment of the personal data. Data transfer is considered a form of 'treatment' of personal data under Art. 6.20 of Law.