Under Art. 41 of Law No. 2013/025 on Electronic Communications, the Autorité de Régulation (ARE) may periodically analyse markets to determine whether one or more operators possess significant market power (SMP). If an operator is designated as having SMP, the Authority may impose, as appropriate: (i) accounting separation for specified interconnection and/or access activities; and (ii) functional separation, requiring a vertically integrated operator to place wholesale access activities in an operationally separate entity that offers access products and services to all undertakings—including affiliates within the same group—on identical terms, conditions, prices, service levels, and using the same systems and processes.

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

It is reported that the Autorité de Régulation (ARE), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Law No. 2017-020 provides that the controller may transfer personal data to a third country only if that country ensures an adequate level of protection (Art. 20). The Personal Data Protection Authority shall publish and maintain a list of states that it considers to provide an adequate level of protection (Art. 21). If the country is not included in the list of adequate countries, the controller must first inform the Authority. Moreover, Art. 24 specifies that the data controller may transfer personal data to a third country that does not meet the requirements of Art. 21 if the transfer is one-off, not massive, and the person to whom the data relates has expressly consented to its transfer, or if the transfer is necessary for any of the following purposes:
- to safeguard the life of that person.
- to protect the public interest.
- to comply with obligations to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.
- the performance of a contract between the controller and the data subject.
Lastly, the Authority may authorise, on the basis of a duly motivated request, a transfer or a set of transfers of data to a third country that does not ensure an adequate level of protection when the data controller offers sufficient guarantees with regard to the provisions of this law, including through contractual clauses (Art. 25).

According to the Bangui Agreement, ratified by 17 French-speaking States, including Mauritania, applicants resident outside the territory of the Member States must file through an agent selected in one of those Member States (Section III, Art. 8). The professional status of agent accredited to the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) is governed by the Regulations on the profession of Authorised Agent before the OAPI.

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

Law No. 2012-038 provides a clear regime of copyright exceptions, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission (Arts. 30-52). The regime follows the fair use model. In addition, the Revised Bangui Agreement, which is a regional intellectual property law that is not only a regional convention applicable in all member states but also serves as a national intellectual property law in Mauritania and each of the other member states, contains provisions on copyright in Annex VII: Chapter IV (Limitations to Economic Rights). Although the Agreement establishes a set of copyright exceptions, these do not adhere to the fair use or fair dealing models.

It is reported that intellectual property rights (IPR) protection remains relatively nascent in Mauritania, with limited jurisprudence and institutional support for enforcement. Infringement and weak implementation are noted particularly in trademarks and in copyright and related rights, affecting goods such as books, audio-visual media, and mobile phones. While the government is pursuing reforms— including the creation of agencies for property certification and consumer protection to curb counterfeit trade—overall enforcement capacity remains limited.

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

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

Mauritania is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

In accordance with Art. 38 of Law No. 2021-024, to encourage participation by domestic companies, a price preference is granted to compliant bids submitted by Mauritanian bidders. As established in Art. 39, this margin must be specified in the tender documents as a percentage of the bid amount, up to a maximum of 15% of the contract value.
Art. 58 of Decree No. 2022-083 implementing implementing Law No. 2021-024 further details the procedure for establishing this preference. Moreover, Art. 59 the Decree provides that a tenderer who plans to subcontract at least 20% of the total contract value to one or more national companies may benefit from an additional preference margin of up to 5%, which may be combined with the Art. 58 preference, subject to a maximum total margin of 15%. However, subcontracting more than 30% of the total value of a contract is prohibited.

Art. 32 of Law No. 2021-024 provides that, in order to encourage the participation of social economy players such as associations, workers' or craftsmen's cooperatives, Economic Interest Groupings and social enterprises, or SMEs, particularly those employing disabled people, unqualified young people or women, the contracting authority may reserve for them access to small contracts for works, supplies or non-intellectual services.