For the conformity assessment, the equipment has to be submitted to certification bodies recognized by the regulator for certification. The SUTEL (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones) recognizes 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 also requires that each model has its own certificate, while previously family approvals were allowed. Any difference between models, such as color, hardware, or software, requires separate Type Approval certificates.

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 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 safe harbor regime found in the Executive Decree No. 36,880 only applies to intermediary liability related to copyright infringement, therefore the country lacks a safe harbor regime that goes beyond copyright infringement.

According to the General Regulations for Data Update of Prepayment Mobile Users, users of prepayment mobiles 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 it is mandatory for MNOs to share their customers’ full or partial registration profiles with the government upon request.

Costa Rica has a safe harbour regime in place for intermediaries for copyright infringements. Executive Decree No. 36,880 implements Art. 15.11.27 of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) establishing limitations on liability for service providers for copyright only. Pursuant to the Decree, users who believe their rights have been violated should communicate to the service provider, which has 15 days to take down the content. Takedowns can also occur through a judicial order. The system has been criticized for ambiguity, as the limited intermediary liability applies to service providers who voluntarily abide by the rule.

Data privacy regulation in Costa Rica is contained in two laws:
- Law No. 7975, the Undisclosed Information Law, which makes it a crime to disclose confidential and/or personal information without authorization;
- Law No. 8968, Protection in the Handling of the Personal Data of Individuals together with its by-laws, which were enacted to regulate the activities of companies that administer databases containing personal information.The latter contains the authorization of PRODHAB ("Agencia de Protección de Datos de los Habitantes"), the Data Protection Agency of the inhabitants.

Art. 14 of the Law Governing Personal Data and Art. 40 of the Executive Decree require data controllers to be registered in the Inhabitants Data Protection Agency (PRODHAB), to obtain consent from the data subject in order to transfer personal data to another country. Moreover, the transfer must ensure that, where personal data is transferred to any other country, adequate levels of protection of the data subject's rights in connection with processing their personal data are provided. However, when personal data is transferred to a data processor for processing purposes only (i.e. the processor does not become a data controller), or is moved between companies of the same economic interest group, or to companies under joint control, the transfer of data to the data processor does not constitute a transfer under the Law and it is not necessary to obtain the data subject's consent (Art. 8 of the Decree).

Costa Rica has joined trade agreements covering cooperation commitments on open transfers of cross-border data flows, however none of these commitments include binding rules on cross-border data transfers. These include:
- Art. 15.5.d of the Tratado de Libre Comercio entre los Estados Unidos Mexicanos y las Repúblicas de Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua;
- Art. 16.7.c of the Tratado de Libre Comercio entre la República de Colombia y la República de Costa Rica.

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

It is reported that the Costa Rica's Telecommunications Superintendency (SUTEL), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

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.

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 organized under the laws of the Republic through Executive Order No. 449 and Act 3226. It is reported that there is no intention to privatize.

According to Art. 121, Par. 14 (c) of the Constitution of Costa Rica, wireless services cannot be permanently removed from State ownership. Both 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 the 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.

There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements. Regulations on infrastructure sharing for the support of public telecommunication networks regulates the sharing of infrastructure for public telecommunications networks in Costa Rica.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) is a fully state-owned enterprise and acquisition of shares need to be approved through special laws.

Moreover, according to Law No. 7789, Art. 15, 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.