According to Art. 24.1 of the Information and Communication Technologies Act, a license for "any service involving the use of information and communication technologies" is mandated in the country. In addition, according to Art. 24.5 the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (ICTA) must take into account “the public interest and the likelihood of unfair practice" for the issuance of the license. It is reported that the lack of precise definitions of the terms “public interest” and “unfair practice” might permit denials on virtually any basis that the ICTA desires. Licences can also be denied based on “any element” of national security, pursuant to Section 24.5b.

Under Section 36.1 of the Data Protection Act, a data controller may transfer data abroad only under certain conditions. These include compliance with appropriate safeguards, the explicit consent of the data subject and other cases of necessity of the transfer.
Under Section 36.4 of the Data Protection Act, the Data Protection Commissioner may request a person who transfers data to another country to demonstrate the effectiveness of the safeguards or the existence of compelling legitimate interests and may, in order to protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of data subjects, prohibit, suspend or subject the transfer to such conditions as the Data Commissioner may determine.

Mauritius has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

The Data Protection Act applies to all categories of industries and seeks to ensure lawfulness, fairness and transparency such that individuals are well-informed and afforded protection for the confidentiality of their data in order to reduce the growing risks of data leaks. The Data Protection Office is the national data protection authority in Mauritius, and the Data Protection Commissioner (the Commissioner) is responsible for the enforcement of the Act.

Section 34 of the Data protection Act provides for data protection impact assessment where processing operations are likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of data subjects by virtue of their nature, scope, context and purposes; every controller or processor shall, prior to the processing, carry out an assessment of the impact of the envisaged processing operations on the protection of personal data.

Section 25.2 of the Information and Communication Technologies Act allows the Information and Communications Technologies Authority to empower officers to inspect "at all reasonable times" any installation, apparatus or premises relating to a licence without seeking a warrant. The breadth of this power is unclear, given the law’s failure to define “reasonable times”, “inspect”, and what it means for an installation, apparatus or premise to “relate” to a licence. Section 25.3 authorises a similar power but with due process protections, such as requiring a magistrate’s warrant.
Under Section 24.1, a license is granted to a person intending to operate an information and communication network or service. Information and communication technologies are defined as technologies employed in collecting, storing, using or sending out information, including those involving the use of computers or any telecommunication system.

Section 7 of the Data Protection Act states that subject to Section 26 of the Bank of Mauritius Act, Section 64 of the Banking Act, Section 83 of the Financial Services Act, Section 30 of the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act and Section 81 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the Commissioner may, by written notice served on a person, request from that person such information as is necessary or expedient for the discharge of its functions and the exercise of its powers under this Act.
Where the information requested by the Commissioner is stored in a computer, disc or cassette, or on microfilm, or preserved by any mechanical or electronic device, the person named in the notice shall produce or give access to the information in a form in which it can be taken away and in which it is visible and legible. It is not stated that a court order is needed to access the data.

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

Mauritius’s copyright framework is established under the Copyright Act of 2014. The Act does not provide for an open-ended fair use or fair dealing standard. Rather, it sets out a closed list of narrowly defined exceptions, limiting lawful uses to specific, enumerated purposes that are subject to the principle of “fair practice”. This principle requires that any permitted use be compatible with fair practice and confined to what is justified by the relevant purpose. Arts. 16–28 lists the exceptions, which include private reproduction for personal purposes; reproduction and other utilisation for teaching and scientific non-commercial purposes; reproduction, broadcasting, and other communication to the public for informatory purposes, among others.

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

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

Mauritius does not have a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to trade secrets in Sections 4 and 9 of the Protection against Unfair Practices (Industrial Property Rights) Act.

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

The government holds controlling shares in Mauritius Telecom, the leading provider of voice, mobile, Internet and data communication services in Mauritius. The government owns 33.5% of the shares, while SBM Holdings Ltd, also owned by the government, owns 19% of the shares.

It is reported that Mauritius does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.