The Data Protection Act deviates from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the transfer of data in its Art. 10. The Article states that, in the absence of an adequacy decision pursuant to Art. 45.3 of the GDPR, the Minister may, following consultation with the Commissioner, set limits to the transfer of specific categories of personal data to a third country or an international organisation for important reasons of public interest.

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides a comprehensive framework for data protection that applies to all EU Member States. The Data Protection Act (Act XX 2018) implemented the GDPR in Malta.

Under the EU Directive on Data Retention, operators were required to retain certain categories of traffic and location data (excluding the content of those communications) for a period between six months and two years and to make them available, on request, to law enforcement authorities for the purposes of investigating, detecting and prosecuting serious crime and terrorism. On 8 April 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the Directive invalid. However, not all national laws that implemented the Directive have been overturned.
Despite the ECJ ruling, the Maltese law on data retention still applies. According to Art. 21 of Subsidiary Legislation 586.01 Processing of Personal Data (Electronic Communications Sector) Regulations, internet access and Internet e-mail data shall be retained for a minimum of six months, while communications data of fixed network telephony, mobile telephony and Internet telephony shall be retained for a minimum of one year.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbour. Not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, leading to divergent national case law that could cause legal insecurity on an EU level.
In Malta, the intermediary liability in the E-commerce Directive is implemented almost verbatim in the Electronic Commerce Act (Part IV). The most remarkable difference is that it covers exclusively liability in damages.

The European Union and Malta have adopted the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The treaty was ratified on 14 December 2009 and came into effect on 14 March 2010.

The Directive 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) is key in harmonising national laws concerning trade secrets. Malta transposed the Directive through the Act No. XXIX of 2018 - Trade Secrets Act, 2018.

It is reported that passive sharing is mandated in Malta, and it is practised in mobile based on commercial agreements. In addition, Art. 3.2 of the Directive 2014/61/EU establishes that Member States shall ensure that, upon written request of an undertaking providing or authorised to provide public communications networks, any network operator must meet all reasonable requests for access to its physical infrastructure under fair and reasonable terms and conditions, including price, with a view to deploying elements of high-speed electronic communications networks. Such written request shall specify the elements of the project for which the access is requested, including a specific time frame.

Both accounting and functional separation of significant market power (SMP)/ dominant network operators are mandated. Functional separation is only applicable when all other SMP remedies are deemed to be ineffective. As such, no operator with SMP is currently liable for such a remedy. An obligation of functional separation applies to vertically integrated undertakings to place activities related to the wholesale provision of relevant access products in an independently operating business entity. Such business entity shall supply access products and services to all undertakings, including to other business entities within the parent company, on the same timescales, terms and conditions, including those relating to price and service levels, and by means of the same systems and processes.

Art. 85 of the Utilities Directive (2014/25/EU) contains provisions allowing contracting public entities to reject foreign goods not covered by any EU international commitments from its tender procedures. In these cases, a tender submitted for the award of a supply contract may be rejected where the proportion of the products originating in third countries exceeds 50% of the total value of the products constituting the tender (Art. 85.2). Additionally, in cases of equivalent offers, the provisions provide for a preference for European tenders and tenders covered by EU's international obligations. In practice, this possibility has rarely been used.
In Malta, the Directive has been transposed with the Law LN 351 of 2016 - Public Procurement of Entities operating in the Water, Energy, Transport and Postal Services Sectors Regulations, 2016.

It is reported that there are no specific restrictions on foreign ownership or control nor sectoral limitations.

According to Art. 11 and the Schedule of Act No. LX of 2020, foreign direct investments in the areas of communications, media, data processing or storage, access to sensitive information, including personal data, or the ability to control such information, critical technologies and dual-use items or the freedom and pluralism of the media are subject to screening.

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

There is no general principle for the use of copyright-protected material comparable to the fair use/fair dealing principles. Directive 2001/29/EC defines an optional but exhaustive set of limitations from the author´s exclusive rights under the control of the “three-step test” in line with the Berne Convention that establishes three cumulative conditions to the limitations and exceptions of a copyright holder’s rights. The Directive has been transposed by Member States with significant freedom.
Art. 9 of the Copyright Act of Malta implements the three-step test. Also, some specific limitations, which are non-mandatory by the Directive 2001/29/EC, have been implemented.