Art. 78 of the Legislative Decree No. 48 of 2002 Promulgating the Telecommunications Law provides that a licensed operator must provide all technical resources, including telecom equipment, systems, and programs relating to its licensed telecom network that allow security agents to have access to the network for protecting national security. In addition, Art. 79 authorises, in a state of national security or in a declaration of martial law, a competent authority to requisition the telecom services and networks of any licensed operator to address the circumstances. It is unclear whether a court order is required.

Bahrain has a safe harbour regime in place for intermediaries for copyright infringements. Under Law No. 22 of 2006 (Section IX), internet service providers (ISPs) are liable if, through their network or system, they are found to have deliberately instigated a copyright infringement violation, or participated in it to a significant degree, or are found responsible for it, having been aware of the infringing activity this. ISPs are not liable when they do not control, initiate or direct the transmission of the material that takes place through the systems or networks controlled or operated by them or on their behalf; adopted and reasonably applied measures, including the termination (where appropriate) of accounts of subscribers who repeatedly commit violations; abide by the standard technological measures to identify and protect the material; the ISP does not make any change to the material.

There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Bahrain to deliver telecom services to end users. Moreover, passive infrastructure sharing is practised in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

Batelco, the former incumbent telecom operator, underwent a structural separation in 2019 into a wholesale infrastructure unit (BNET) and a retail operator (Batelco). The process for completing the full internal systems and organisational separation is underway, according to Resolution No. 17, Promulgating the Fifth National Telecommunications Plan. The Fifth Telecommunications Plan adopted in 2020 provides that BNET will become the sole fibre network infrastructure company over time. Batelco is partly owned by the government. As reported in 2020, Mumtalakat Holding Company and Social Insurance Organisation, both of which are associated with the Bahraini government, own more than 55% of the shares.

While it is reported that Bahrain has established accounting separation by law for operators with significant market power, functional separation for operators with significant market power is not required by law. Nevertheless, Resolution No. 17, Promulgating the Fifth National Telecommunications Plan, shows that the government is finalising the implementation of the structural separation of Batelco (the former incumbent) into a wholesale infrastructure unit (BNET) and a retail operator (Batelco).

Art. 26 of the Legislative Decree No. 48 of 2002 provides that a licensee must be incorporated in Bahrain or have a registered branch office in Bahrain. In addition, it provides that, subject to certain exceptions, substantially all of the infrastructure and personnel associated with the provision of the telecommunications service must be located within Bahrain.

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

It is reported that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

According to Art. 59 of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law of 2006, a licensee must keep accounting records, other records that the Central Bank may specify, and separate records for each branch abroad providing any of the services that are subject to the law. Insurance and reinsurance companies must keep records as specified by the Central Bank, including insurance contracts signed by the company, claims made against it and actions taken thereon, reinsurance contracts entered into by the company, and funds to be maintained according to the law (Art. 59). Art. 60 states that the period for which the companies must keep the data is at least ten years and the documents have to be retained at the licensee's main office in Bahrain, or at such other places as the Central Bank may approve.

The Legislative Decree No. 21 of 2001 (the Commercial Companies Law), last amended in 2018, provides for the incorporation of companies with up to 100% foreign capital, except for certain business activities that are reserved for Bahraini nationals and companies. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism (MoICT) maintains a small list of business activities restricted to Bahraini ownership, which do not include any sector relevant for digital trade.

OM-6.3.1 of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) Rulebook provides that conventional bank licensees must maintain the following records in original form or in hard copy at their premises in Bahrain:
- Internal policies, procedures and operating manuals;
- Corporate records, including minutes of shareholders', directors' and management meetings;
- Correspondence with the CBB and records relevant to monitoring compliance with CBB requirements;
- Reports prepared by the conventional bank licensee's internal and external auditors; and
- Employee training manuals and records.
Conventional bank licensees are banks licensed by CBB under Volume 1 of the CBB Rulebook and generally operate according to conventional finance principles, as opposed to operating in accordance with Islamic finance principles.

Under the Legislative Decree No. 21 of 2001, all investments and transactions in Bahrain are subject to a screening process conducted by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism (MoICT). Investments and transactions must comply with national security and public order requirements. Over the past year, the Ministry of the MoICT has required companies to disclose the ultimate beneficial owner of their shareholders, who own at least 10% of the share capital.

According to Art. 12 of Law No. 30 of 2018, the transfer of personal data out of Bahrain is prohibited unless the transfer is made to a country or region that provides sufficient protection to personal data. Alternatively, data controllers can also transfer personal data to countries that are not determined to have sufficient protection of personal data under several circumstances, including a permission to be issued by the Authority on a case-by-case basis, the consent of the data subject and the necessity to conclude a contract (Art. 13).
Order No. 42 establishes a list of countries that have been deemed by the Authority to provide an adequate level of data protection. The adequacy list includes 83 countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, India, all EU countries, the UK, and the U.S. Controllers may transfer personal data to any country on the adequacy list without needing to obtain any authorisation from the Authority (Art. 2).

Patent applicants must appoint a local agent if the applicant is not a resident of Bahrain. Any attorney or lawyer registered to practice before the Patent Office can act as an agent. Art. 5 of Law No. 1 of 2004 in respect of the Patent and Utility Module provides that: "any natural or legal person shall be entitled to file a patent application and acquire the subsequent rights ensuing therefrom subject to the provisions of this law. Eligible applicants may be nationals of the Kingdom, nationals of countries that are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), or nationals of any other country who enjoy national treatment."

Art. 2 of Order No. 45 of 2022 provides that sensitive personal data should not be processed without the consent of the data subject unless one of the cases of Art. 5 of Law No. 30 of 2018 applies. These include:
- The processing is required by the data controllers for their duties and the exercise of their legally prescribed rights in the field of labour relations that binds them to their employees;
- The processing is necessary to protect any person if the data subject, their custodian, guardian, or trustee is not legally able to give their consent and is subject to obtaining prior permission from the Authority;
- The processed data was provided by the data subject to the public;
- The processing is necessary to initiate or defend any legal rights claim, including what is required in preparation for the matter;
- The processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive medicine, medical diagnosis, provisions of health care, treatment, or management of health care services by a licensed medical practitioner or any person legally bound to maintain confidentiality.
Controllers also have to implement additional organisational rules when processing sensitive personal data, including appropriate high-level technical measures to ensure a high degree of protection against secrecy, breach or unlawful processing of such data (Art. 4 of Order No. 45).
Processing is broadly defined in Art. 1 of Law No. 30 and includes disclosing by transmission, dissemination, transference or otherwise making available for others.