It is reported that Tunisia does not implement any de minimis threshold, which is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties.

According to Art. 8.1 of the Decision of the National Telecommunication Authority No. 141-2013, local domain name registration including ".com.tn" is restricted and limited to the following eligibility criteria: legal entities constituted according to the Tunisian laws in force, holders or legal representatives of an international trademark registered in Tunisia, natural persons of legal age of Tunisian nationality or officially residents in Tunisia.

According to Arts. 2, 3, 5 and 8 of Decree-Law No. 14-1961, some commercial activities are restricted to Tunisian nationals. Foreigners may hold up to 50% stake in the capital of companies engaged in certain activities, provided that they are managed by Tunisians. These activities are: commission agent, broker, commercial agent, consignee, general representative, general or sales agent, irrespective of the designation under which the activity is carried out; and commercial traveller. Art. 8 prohibits foreigners from engaging in certain specified business activities, such as wholesale distribution and retail trading, except where a waiver is granted by the Minister of Trade. Foreigners wishing to engage in commercial activity are required to obtain a foreigner’s trading permit by the Minister of Commerce. This applies to any form of provision of commerce, including e-commerce. This text has not been revised since 1985.
It is reported that foreigners may, however, set up international trading companies provided that at least 30% of the company's annual turnover is derived from the export of goods of Tunisian origin.

According to Arts. 14-18 of the Circular 2016-9 of the Central Bank of Tunisia on transfers for current operations, amended by Circular No. 2019-2, online cross-border purchases are limited to certain online telecommunication services listed in Annex 1 and it is not possible to purchase services not included in the list of Annex 1. The list of commercial operations for which a user can make a payment online is quite limited and does not include e-retail. Among the permitted activities there are the reservation of hotels abroad and the payment of tariffs for the import of goods. In addition, Art. 15 of Circular lets Tunisian residents with at least a high school diploma use a special "International Technology Card" for those online payments that are allowed with a maximum annual limit of 1,000 Tunisian Dinars TND (approx. 320 USD) for specific online expenses. The Circular was amended by the Circular No. 2019-2, updating Art.14, which set the highest annual limit for this special card at 10,000 TND (approx. 3,200 USD) for resident companies. Companies with the "startup" label have an annual maximum allocation of 100,000 TND (approx. 32,000 USD).

Art. 8 of Decree-Law No. 14-1961 prohibits foreigners from engaging in certain specified business activities, such as wholesale distribution and retail trading, except where a waiver is granted by the Minister of Trade. Foreigners wishing to engage in commercial activity are required to obtain a foreigner’s trading permit by the Minister of Commerce. This applies to any form of provision of commerce, including e-commerce. This text has not been revised since 1985.

It is reported that there are restrictions on international payments due to Tunisia’s foreign exchange regulations as well as the non-convertibility of the dinar. Tunisian credit cards are not approved for transactions in currencies other than the dinar and therefore cannot be used for purchases made on foreign commercial internet sites. This prevents Tunisian residents from making transactions on international e-commerce sites such as eBay, Amazon, and AliExpress, unless they obtain a “Digital Technology Charge Card” issued by the Government. This card has been launched in 2015 by the Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy with Circular 2015-5 of the Tunisian Central Bank. The card can be obtained only by Tunisians with college degrees and it allows cardholders to make online purchases of software, mobile applications, web services, and publications in support of entrepreneurial activities. Individual users are limited to 1,000 dinars (approx. USD 377) in annual purchases (Art. 1). The program has been expanded to include Tunisian IT companies, which are allotted up to 10,000 dinars (approx. USD 3,770) annually to purchase on-line services, including server hosting and freelance programming services.

Arts. 3-10 of the Decree No. 94-1744 specify the technical import control, depending on the nature of the product, three types of controls, generally carried out at the point of clearance and before Customs authorizes release: "List A" products are subject to systematic control; "List B" products require a compliance certificate; and "List C" products are subject to specifications. The Decree is implemented by the Order of 15 September 2005, amending the Order of 30 August 1994, which specifies the list of products subject to technical import control. For products on List A, which includes telecommunications equipment and computers, the technical control is systematic and can take different forms (desk review, possibly accompanied by sample testing, inspection of goods or analysis of samples). It is reported that although all products are controlled, the modalities are not clear and give some discretionary power to the technical control authorities. In addition, it is reported that controls are not based on a risk analysis, Tunisian norms are not notified to World Trade Organization (WTO), and in cases where a laboratory analysis is requested, this prolongs the delay before commercialisation and increases storage costs.

Arts. 9 and 87 of the Telecommunications Code ban the use of encryption and prescribe penalties of up to five years in prison for unauthorized use of such tools.

Art. 8 of Government Decree No. 2020-48 provides that any natural person or legal entity wishing to approve telecommunications equipment or radio equipment enabling the encryption of data exchanged over telecommunications networks is required to declare to the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche des Télécommunications (CERT, Telecommunications Research and Studies Center) the technical characteristics of the encryption method. The CERT examines the content of the declaration and checks that it complies with the encryption method used in the equipment and decides on the application for approval.

Art. 6 of Government Decree No. 48-2020 provides that telecommunications terminal equipment imported or manufactured in Tunisia and intended for marketing or public use, as well as radio equipment, whether or not it is intended to be connected to a public telecommunications network, must first be approved by type, brand and model by the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche des Télécommunications (CERT, Telecommunications Research and Studies Center). Art. 11 states that the CERT is responsible, in collaboration with the bodies concerned in the field of telecommunications, for drawing up the technical requirements for approval and technical conformity.
The Tunisian Accreditation Council (TUNAC) evaluates and accredits conformity assessment bodies in accordance with relevant national and international standards. TUNAC has mutual recognition agreements with the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA) for the accreditation of laboratories for analysis, testing, and calibration. Moreover, TUNAC is also a signatory of the mutual recognition agreements with the International Accreditation Forum and the EA for the accreditation of certification bodies for quality and environmental management systems.

Arts. 3-10 of the Decree No. 94-1744 specify the technical import control, depending on the nature of the product, three types of controls, generally carried out at the point of clearance and before Customs authorizes release: "List A" products are subject to systematic control; "List B" products require a compliance certificate; and "List C" products are subject to specifications. The Decree is implemented by the Order of 15 September 2005, amending the Order of 30 August 1994, which specifies the list of products subject to technical import control. For products on List A, which includes telecommunications equipment and computers, the technical control is systematic and can take different forms (desk review, possibly accompanied by sample testing, inspection of goods or analysis of samples). It is reported that although all products are controlled, the modalities are not clear and give some discretionary power to the technical control authorities. In addition, it is reported that controls are not based on a risk analysis, Tunisian norms are not notified to World Trade Organization (WTO), and in cases where a laboratory analysis is requested, this prolongs the delay before commercialisation and increases storage costs.

Art. 32 of Telecommunications Code Telecommunications terminal equipment imported or manufactured in Tunisia and intended for marketing or public use, as well as radio terminal equipment, whether or not intended for connection to the public telecommunications network, are subject to prior authorisation. Decree No. 48-2020 regulates the terms and conditions of this authorisation.

All imports from Israel are banned. According to General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) document L/6713, Tunisia has not applied the GATT concerning Israel, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 35 of this Agreement, since the country's accession in 1990.

Arts. 9 and 87 of the Telecommunications Code ban the use of encryption and prescribe penalties of up to five years in prison for unauthorized use of such tools.

In October 2022, Tunisia introduced mandatory licences for imports into Tunisia on 130 product categories, including webcams, among others. The list of products was published by the Tunisian Ministry of Trade and Export Development but the measure was not published in the Official Journal of Tunisia and there was no notification to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Under the measure, importers wishing to import any of the covered goods into Tunisia, must first obtain an import licence from the relevant Tunisian ministry. For that purpose, importers must submit an importation file to competent authorities. The application file must contain several documents, including: an invoice issued by the factory; a certificate issued by an official authority in the country of export relating to the legal entity of the factory and the license permitting it to practice its activity; a proof that the factory has a quality control system in place (in practice: a certificate presenting the quality procedures in place, ISO standards, self-certification etc); a list of products to be imported; the trademark of the product and the trademark that is produced under a license from the entity owning it (in practice: registered trademark in the country of origin); a model of the labels of the imported products; a free sale certificate delivered by the national authorities of the exporting party; and documents and reports confirming that the imported products meet applicable quality standards (in practice: ISO certificates, conformity Moreover, Tunisian authorities reserve the right to request additional documents to check the quality and safety of imported goods or request samples of goods to be imported for inspection. There are no clear or published deadlines for processing the applications by the Tunisian authorities. According to the information available, the processing of applications may vary from 48 hours to 4 months.