According to Art. 40 of Law No. 20/017 on Telecommunications and Information and Communication Technologies, the legal entity benefiting from a licence must adopt the form of a Société Anonyme (‘S.A’). Without prejudice to agreements and conventions to which the Congolese State is a party, at least thirty per cent (30%) of the share capital of the aforementioned company must be allocated as follows:
- At least 25% must be held by Congolese natural or legal persons whose shares are owned by Congolese natural persons. This subscription must be paid within three years of the company’s incorporation.
- 5% is reserved for Congolese employees of the company.
In the event that the 30% threshold mentioned above is not met, the company may still be incorporated, provided the share reserved for Congolese workers is guaranteed.

According to Art. 111 bis of Law No. 7557 on General Customs, introduced in June 2022 by Art. 1.8 of Law No. 10271, the importation of goods whose total value does not exceed the threshold of 100 Central American pesos (approx. USD 100) are exempt from import duties. This threshold is lower than the USD 200 threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Law No. 7,472 for the Promotion of Competition and Effective Consumer Defence, passed in 1994, provides a comprehensive framework for consumer protection that also applies to online transactions. This law structures the legal and institutional framework for protecting consumer rights and replaces ex-ante control and pricing with an ex-post monitoring system. In addition, Chapter X of Regulation No. 37899-MEIC regulates consumer protection, specifically in the context of electronic commerce.

Costa Rica has not signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Costa Rica has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Costa Rica has adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

For the conformity assessment, the equipment has to be submitted to certification bodies recognised by the regulator for certification. The SUTEL (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones) recognises the FCC or CE certificates. It is reported that an accreditation system has not been implemented in Costa Rica due to the lack of adequate laboratory equipment and funding. The Institute of Technological Norms of Costa Rica (Instituto de Normas Técnicas, INTECO) is the only entity accredited in Costa Rica that can certify that companies are following standards-related requirements. According to Section 6 of RCS-358-2018, an expert accredited by SUTEL performs the tests of mobile telecommunications terminals in accordance with the homologation test protocol. The following products need to be tested: cell phone Trackers, RFID WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), and Bluetooth modules.

It is reported that Costa Rica’s telecommunications regulator, the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (SUTEL), mandates retesting and recertification of mobile handset hardware subsequent to every software or firmware update. While SUTEL has reduced costs and streamlined procedures for testing and certification, this procedure is reported as burdensome and is not required by any other regulator worldwide. Since 2015, SUTEL has also required that each model has its own certificate, while previously, family approvals were allowed. Any difference between models, such as colour, hardware, or software, requires separate Type Approval certificates.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Costa Rica's law and jurisprudence. The safe harbour regime found in Executive Decree No. 36,880 only applies to intermediary liability related to copyright infringement. Therefore, the country lacks a safe harbour regime that goes beyond copyright infringement.

According to the General Regulations for Data Update of Prepayment Mobile Users, users of prepayment mobile subscriptions must validate their identity. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are required to collect and record a user’s personal information and proof-of-identity documentation. It has been reported that MNOS must share their customers’ full or partial registration profiles with the government upon request.

Art. 53 of the Regulation on the Regime for the Protection of the End User of Telecommunications Services obliges telecommunications operators and service providers to verify the authenticity of the data provided by the client when subscribing to services. If they find that the information submitted for the subscription of services is altered or falsified, they must refuse to sign the contract for the services requested.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), which operates in the telecom sector, is a fully state-owned enterprise, and the acquisition of shares needs to be approved through special laws. Moreover, according to Art. 15 of Law No. 7789, foreign participation in public or private telecommunication companies entering into joint ventures with the state-owned Heredia Public Services Company (ESPH) is limited to a maximum of 49% of the capital stock.

The main fixed-line operator, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, ICE), is fully state-owned. ICE is an autonomous entity that is part of the Costa Rican state that was organised under the laws of the Republic through Executive Order No. 449 and Act 3,226.
According to Art. 121, Par. 14 (c) of the Constitution of Costa Rica, wireless services cannot be permanently removed from State ownership. Art. 28 of Law No. 8,642 and Art. 7 of Law No. 8,660 state that fixed telephony services are subject to a special legislative concession regime.
The state-owned company ICE continues to hold a monopoly on the provision of traditional basic fixed telephony. Yet, in addition to ICE, there are 13 providers on the fixed services market using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and 56 providers of Internet services. ICE and four other operators (Telefónica (Movistar), América Móvil (Claro), and two mobile virtual network operators (RACSA and Televisora de Costa Rica) provide mobile telephony services in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. According to Art. 34 of the Regulation of Access and Interconnection of telecommunication networks, operators or providers involved in network access and/or interconnection shall prepare, maintain and submit to Sutel financial statements with separate cost accounting for their activities related to access and interconnection, as well as for the different services and/or networks in which they provide services. The separation of accounts shall be submitted to Sutel accompanied by a report made by an auditor external to the operator or provider, showing the consistency of such information with the corresponding financial statements, the respect for the segmentation principles set forth in this article and that the segmented information represents a true and fair view of the contribution to the overall result of each segment.

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