In order to provide Internet multimedia broadcasting services, approval of the Broadcasting and the Communication Committee is required under the Internet Multimedia Broadcasting Business Act. This regime under Art. 4 has been in place since 2008.

Per Art. 5 of the Act on the Protection, Use, Etc. of Location Information, any person who intends to engage in location information business shall obtain permission from the Korea Communications Commission. Even if permitted to do such business, location information providers or location-based service providers cannot collect the location information of individuals without the individual's consent under Art. 18. These restrictions have been in place since 2005.
It is reported that, although a supplier may export location information once acquiring a permit, Korea has never approved such a permit despite numerous applications by foreign suppliers over the past decade.

Commercial presence is not required to provide cross-border services under the Commercial Act and the Enforcement Decree of Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. However, it is reported that "Korea prohibits foreign satellite service providers from selling services (e.g., transmission capacity) directly to end-users without going through a company established in Korea. Given existing investment restrictions, this prohibition significantly restricts the ability of foreign satellite service suppliers to compete in the Korean market".

The Patent Law, enacted in 1990, does not include provisions that discriminate based on the nationality of a patent applicant. However, under Art. 25, non-resident foreigners can only obtain patents if their home countries provide reciprocal treatment to Korean nationals or if a treaty or convention with Korea exists, following the reciprocity principle. Additionally, Art. 5 stipulates that individuals without a domicile or place of business in Korea cannot initiate patent-related procedures or file legal proceedings against administrative decisions unless represented by a patent attorney or agent based in Korea. Finally, Art. 201 requires patent applications to include a Korean translation of key documents, such as the abstract, description of the invention, claims, and titles of drawings, among others.

Korea is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Korea has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows the fair use model, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. Art. 35.5 of the Korean Copyright Act lists the exceptions, which include any use that does not conflict with the general method of use of the copyrighted work and which unfairly infringes the legitimate interests of the author. To determine whether an act of use of a copyrighted work falls under the fair use model, the following issues are considered: the purpose and nature of the use; the types and uses of copyrighted works; the proportion and importance of the part used in the whole work; and the impact of the use of the work on the market or current value or market or potential value of the work.

It is reported that the rapid advancement of digital technologies has led to a rise in online copyright infringement. One prevalent issue in Korea is stream-ripping, a practice where specialised software is used to create unauthorised copies of copyrighted content from licensed streaming platforms. As a result, stream-ripping has become a major form of music piracy, causing significant economic harm to music creators and undermining legitimate online services.

Korea has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

The Enforcement Decree of the Act on Contracts to Which the State is a Party, which was promulgated in 1995, provides some situations where a competitive bidding process is limited or does not apply. In light of factors such as the purpose, characteristics, and scale of the procurement contract, the government may restrict the participation of potential bidders (Art. 21), select certain bidders to engage in further bidding (Art. 23) or execute an at-will contract (Art. 26).
This is despite Since the Act on Contracts to which the State is a Party, under Art. 5, has prohibited "any special term or condition, discriminative against nationals of contracting states to the Agreement on Government Procurement and goods produced or services provided by such States and in favour of nationals of the Republic of Korea and goods produced or services provided from the Republic of Korea, to international tendering procedures."
The Act on Contracts to Which a Local Government is a Party, under Article 6, has applied the same principle since 2005. Per Art. 12, the contracting agency may not restrict the participation of bidders who have gone through a competitive bidding process.

As of January 2021, pursuant to Art. 4 of the National Intelligence Service Korea Act (introduced by the amendment - Act No. 11104 - of 2011) and Art. 56 of the Electronic Government Act (introduced by the amendment - Act No. 10012 - of 2010), the National Intelligence Service (NIS) applies the Security Verification Scheme to network equipment and cyber-security software imported for government procurement. Generally, suppliers may satisfy this scheme in two ways: First, cyber-security software such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems are certified at a Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) accredited lab outside of Korea. However, the Common Criteria (CC) certification may not be sufficient for two reasons. First, NIS may substitute the CC certification with other certification mechanisms that were internally developed (e.g., GS Certification). Second, NIS may reject a CC certification when it deems that the certification does not cover particular functions of the product that the government entity needs.
Second, network equipment must undergo a security function test. The equipment that has already passed this test may come in. NIS has recently required some of the cyber-security software that had been subject to the CCRA scheme to pass a security test report conducted by national test agencies. This software includes a software-based security USB (since January 2020), virtualisation product (January 2020), host data leakage prevention product (January 2021), network data leakage prevention product (January 2021), and inter-network data transmission product (January 2022).
There have been reported concerns, starting in 2014, over the additional verification requirement for network equipment, including equipment products that are "not normally considered as 'security' products, such as routers, switches, and IP-PBXs." It is also reported that the NIS has applied the verification scheme "in a non-transparent fashion."

In 2016, the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA) developed a cloud security certificate (KCSC) system governing public-sector cloud service procurement. This is based on the 2016 Notice on Protection of Information for Cloud Computing Services promulgated pursuant to Art. 23-2 of the Act on the Development of Cloud Computing and Protection of Its Users, which was inserted into the statute in 2015. It is reported that this constitutes a key barrier for cloud service providers because they are unable to meet some requirements for the certification without creating a separate, Korean-unique product.

Korea is a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), and its commitments also cover the services sectors considered most important for digital trade, namely telecommunication services (CPC 752), telecommunication-related services (CPC 754), and computer and related services (CPC 84).

Under the Telecommunications Business Act, telecommunications businesses are divided into two categories: namely, facilities-based telecommunications services (FTS) and value-added telecommunications services (VATS). FTS refers to businesses that install telecommunications line equipment and facilities and provide telecom services. VATS are online services using the FTS network, such as cloud computing services, email, e-commerce platforms, and internet search engines. Since 2009, the Act has prohibited foreigners from owning more than 49% of the stock of a telecom enterprise when it comes to FTS (Art. 8).

Under Art. 14 of the Broadcasting Act, no foreign ownership is allowed in terrestrial broadcasting businesses or community radio broadcasting entities. Only 20% of foreign ownership is allowed to a program provider engaging in general programming or a CATV relay broadcasting business entity. Up to 49% of foreign ownership is allowed to a CATV broadcasting entity, satellite broadcasting business entity, or a single transmission network business entity. This restriction has been in place since 2009.
Additionally under Art. 9 of the Internet Multimedia Broadcasting Services Act, only up to 49% of foreign ownership is allowed for Internet multimedia broadcasting service providers or Internet multimedia broadcast content business operators. Only up to 20% of foreign ownership is allowed for internet multimedia broadcast content business operators engaged in general programming or specialised programming of news reports. This restriction has been in place since 2009.

Since 1998, Art. 4 of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act has provided that the national government has a right to decline a foreign investment if there is clear evidence that this investment poses a threat to the national security or public interest. This is not sector-specific but applies horizontally. A decision of the national government about restricting a foreign investment is followed by a notification of the Minister of Knowledge Economy including the categories of business and content of restriction. Korea uses a negative list system, which means that the country is open to foreign investments unless it is explicitly restricted.