Benin has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open transfers of cross-border data flows.

Law No. 2009-09 provides a general framework for personal data protection and establishes, among other things, individuals' rights, consent requirements, restrictions on data processing, as well as establishing the Beninese data protection authority as the supervisory authority. The law is supplemented by the more detailed Digital Code in 2018. The Fifth Book of the Digital Code is directly influenced by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR). It regulates and clarifies several matters, such as joint controllership of data, conditions for consent, data breach notifications, processing for research and other purposes, and impact assessments.

Pursuant to Art. 428 of Law No. 2017-20, where a type of processing, in particular through the use of new technologies and taking into account the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing, is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller shall carry out, prior to the processing, an analysis of the impact of the envisaged processing operations on the protection of personal data, that is a data protection impact assessment (DPIA).

Law No. 2017-20 establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries for copyright infringements. Chapter II of Title I of Book Six of the Law is concerned with the responsibility of internet operators and establishes the general liability regime and the special liability regimes.

Law No. 2017-20 establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries beyond copyright infringement. Chapter II of Title I of Book Six of the Law is concerned with the responsibility of internet operators and establishes the general liability regime and the special liability regimes.

Art. 4 of Decree No. 2020-249 stipulates that no individual may benefit from an electronic communications service unless they have first been identified by the operator in question in accordance with the conditions set forth in this decree. The term "electronic communications services" is defined as encompassing all services that involve the emission, transmission, or reception of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, or information of any nature or a combination of these functions. The 2020 decree repealed Decree No. 2016-465, which contained a similar requirement in Chapter II.

Arts. 19 and 20 of Decree No. 2020-249 stipulate that internet café operators must identify their users and collect the necessary information prior to providing their services. In addition to this information, cybercafé operators must record the identifier of the terminal used for connection and the date and time of the start and end of the connection. The 2020 decree repealed Decree No. 2016-465, which had already required in Art. 20 that operators of cybercafés identify their customers in advance.

Benin does not have a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to trade secrets. The country has established provisions addressing disclosure, acquisition or use of confidential information in the course of industrial or commercial activities by third parties in Art. 6 of Annex VIII of the Bangui Agreement ratified by 17 French-speaking States, including Benin since 2002.

According to Art. 72 of Law No. 2017-20, the Regulatory Authority shall encourage sharing active and passive infrastructures and access to alternative infrastructures under equity, non-discrimination, and equal access conditions. The Authority can make infrastructure sharing mandatory in specific cases such as i) promotion of competition objectives, ii) territorial planning, or iii) protection of the environment or heritage.

According to Art. 1 of Decree No. 2018-552 of 12 December 2018, the State is the sole shareholder of the telecommunications company SBIN S.A, which is therefore fully state-owned.

It is reported that Benin mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

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

The Post and Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority (ARCEP) is the Authority in charge of regulating electronic communications and postal services. The Regulatory Authority is an independent administrative structure with legal personality and financial and management autonomy. It carries out its missions in an independent, impartial, fair and transparent manner (Art. 113 of Law No. 2017-20).

Section 43 of Law No. 2009-09 provides that the transfer of personal data to another country or an international organisation requires prior authorisation from the Regulator.

Art. 77 of Law No. 2020 - 26 provides for a specific preference for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Any candidate for a public contract who plans to subcontract at least 30% of the total value of the said contract to one or more MSMEs benefits from a margin of preference that may not exceed 5%. In addition, notwithstanding the provisions relating to Community preference, when a public contract is awarded, a preference of 5% must be given to the tender submitted by an MSME. This preference rate may be combined with the Community preference rate of 15%.