Regulation EU 2019/1150 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (the Platform to Business Regulation) requires the disclosure of certain features of algorithms, which may constitute trade secrets. Article 5 stipulates that online intermediation services must disclose the main ranking parameters and their relative importance to business users through terms of service, while online search engines need to make similar disclosures publicly. The Commission's December 2020 guidance on ranking (§82) argues that providers cannot refuse to disclose the main parameters based on the sole argument that these constitute a trade secret.

The EU signed the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty in 1996 and ratified the treaty in 2009. The treaty entered into force in 2010.

The Trade Secrets Directive (EU) 2016/943 protects trade secrets, while also allowing for disclosure of trade secrets for reasons of public interest, either to the public or to public authorities in the performance of their duties. Art. 1.2 states that "this Directive shall not affect: [..] (b) the application of Union or national rules requiring trade secret holders to disclose, for reasons of public interest, information, including trade secrets, to the public or to administrative or judicial authorities for the performance of the duties of those authorities."
Moreover, Art. 5 stipulates that Member States shall ensure that an application for the measures, procedures and remedies provided for in this Directive is dismissed where the alleged acquisition, use or disclosure of the trade secret was carried out in any of the following cases for revealing misconduct, wrongdoing or illegal activity, provided that the respondent acted for the purpose of protecting the general public interest.

The EU signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty in 1996 and ratified the treaty in 2009. The treaty entered into force in 2010.

Contrary to several intellectual property rights in existence (trademarks, design, new varieties of plants), copyright within the EU is still not a unitary right, but a bundle of national laws, though much harmonized by EU Directives. 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 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 some freedom left to them.
The list of copyright exceptions and limitations provided by EU law is exhaustive. However, these may be optional for Member States, as is the case for those provided by the Directive 2001/29/EC (the InfoSoc Directive), or mandatory, as is the case for those provided by Directive 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive).

Under the Regulation 2019/452, Member States may maintain their existing investments screening mechanisms (21 Member States currently do), adopt new ones or remain without such national mechanisms. The Commission keeps an up-to-date list of screening laws in the EU. Member States must notify the Commission who may issue an opinion when an investment threatens the security or public order of more than one Member State, or when an investment could undermine a strategic project or programme of interest to the whole EU, such as Horizon 2020 or Galileo. The final decision remains with the Member State.
The regulation introduces some key requirements for national screening mechanisms, whether existing or envisaged:
- transparency of rules and procedures;
- non-discrimination among foreign investors;
- confidentiality of information exchanged;
- the possibility of recourse against screening decisions, and;
- measures to identify and prevent circumvention by foreign investors.
Screening considerations related to digital trade include the potential effect of the investment (1) on critical infrastructure, whether physical or virtual, including communications, media, data processing or storage, or (2) on critical technologies including artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors & cybersecurity or (3) on access to sensitive information, including personal data, or the ability to control such information or (4) on the freedom and pluralism of the media (Art. 4).

Although the European Union is a signatory to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), its coverage schedules do not include "telecommunications related services" (CPC 754), which is an important sector for digital trade.

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.

The International Procurement Instrument (IPI) introduces measures limiting the access to open EU public procurement tenders of non-EU companies from countries that do not offer similar access to EU companies. The measures apply to tenders worth at least 15 million Euros for works and concessions and 5 million Euros for goods and services, such as the purchasing of computers.
Pursuant to Art. 5, the IPI enables the Commission to investigate third-country measures or practices, adopted or maintained by public authorities or individual contracting authorities, which result in a serious and recurrent impairment of access of Union economic operators, goods or services to the public procurement or concession markets of that third country. When the Commission finds that a third-country measure or practice exists, it may adopt an IPI measure that requires contracting authorities or contracting entities to: impose a score adjustment on tenders submitted by economic operators originating in that third country; or exclude tenders submitted by economic operators originating in that third country.
The Regulation is yet to be implemented by EU Member States. Typically, the implementation by Member States takes 18–24 months on average after adoption.

In January 2022, the European Commission imposed a minimum import price and anti-dumping duties on flat-rolled products of grain-oriented silicon magnetic steel, which is an important material in the production of energy-efficient transformers and large high-performance generators. The measures apply to imports from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America. This is a continuation of measures first introduced in May 2015 by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1953. The minimum import prices (MIPs) currently in force range between 1,536 EUR/tonne up to 2,043 EUR/tonne. They apply to the individually named exporting producers for which individual dumping margins were established from all the countries concerned. If the CIF Union border price is equal to or above the MIP, no duty is payable. Only if import prices are below this level are anti-dumping duties imposed, set at the difference between the import price and the minimum import price, up to a maximum ranging from 21.5% to 39% of the import price. The system of minimum import prices and anti-dumping duties was introduced in 2015, while the level of duties was adjusted in 2022.

In July 1990, the European Commission imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of silicon metal (HS Code: 280469) from China, which is used also for producing silicon compounds as well as silicon wafers used as electronic semiconductors. This measure was last extended in August 2022. The rate of duty is 16.8% of the net free-at-Union-frontier price, with the exception of the company Datong Jinneng Industrial Silicon Co. whose exports are subject to a duty of 16.3% of the net free-at-Union-frontier price.

In November 2021, The European Commission imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty under the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/2011 on imports of optical fiber cables (CN code ex: 8544 70 00) from China. The original duty of 44%, was amended in January 2022 by the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/72, establishing a duty on imports of 33.7%, applicable until November 2026.

In January 2022, the European Commission imposed a countervailing duty under the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/72 for imports of optical fibre cables (CN code ex: 8544 70 00) from China. The rate of duty on imports from China is 10.3%, applicable until January 2027.

The European Union is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).