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

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

Togo has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Art. 94 of the Electronic Communication Law obliges encryption service providers to comply with lawful interception orders. Refusal to provide secret decryption codes to government agencies is punishable by a fine between USD 3,544 and USD 14,178. However, Art. 628 of Law No. 2015-10 of November 24, 2015 on the New Penal Code refers to the criminal offence against disclosure of information pertaining to a company's business secret.

Togo does not have comprehensive trade secret legislation. Yet, there are 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 Togo, since 2002.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Togo to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

Togo is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

According to Art. 92 of Decree No. 2022-080/PR, which repeals Decree No. 2009 - 277/PR on the Code of Public Procurement and Public Service Delegations of 2009, in the award of a public contract and in order to encourage the participation of Community enterprises and very small, small and medium-sized domestic enterprises, a margin of preference shall be given to the bid that complies with the bidding or consultation documents and is submitted by a Community bidder. According to Art. 93, for public contracts awarded by international tender, a preference of up to 15% is given to candidates from Togolese law or West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member states if certain conditions are met: (i) at least 50% of technical managers and staff are Togolese or WAEMU nationals; (ii) for firms and design offices, more than 50% of key personnel are from WAEMU; (iii) and for suppliers, goods must originate from Togo or WAEMU with at least 30% added value or be based on the bidder's nationality for imported goods.
Legal entities benefit if over half their share capital and management are controlled by Togolese or WAEMU nationals. Contracting authorities must apply a 15% preference to tenders subcontracting at least 30% of the contract to local SMEs and a 5% preference to bids by Togolese artisans or WAEMU-based craft enterprises, with this artisanal preference being cumulative with the Community preference.

According to Art. 41 of Decree No. 2022-080/PR, which repeals Decree No. 2009 - 277/PR on the Code of Public Procurement and Public Service Delegations of 2009, the holder of a public works, supply or service contract may, under his full responsibility, subcontract the performance of certain parts of the contract up to a maximum of 40% of the contract value, giving priority to very small, small and medium-sized enterprises governed by Togolese or Community law, provided that they have obtained the prior agreement of the contracting authority. In the case of a public contract awarded by a local authority or one of its public establishments, a candidate for a public contract who has planned to subcontract at least 40% of the total value of the public contract to a local company may benefit from a margin of preference of no more than 5%, which may be added to the preference provided for in Art. 92 and following of this decree.

Togo is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), nor does it have observer status.

The incumbent telecommunications company in Togo, TogoCom, initially fully owned by the government, underwent partial privatisation under Decree No. 2019-142/PR. This decree permitted up to 51% of the company’s shares to be transferred to the private sector, resulting in a 51% acquisition by Agou Holding consortium, made up of the Madagascan conglomerate Axian (majority) and the capital-investor Emerging Capital Partners (ECP). Although no legal framework restricts foreign capital in the telecommunications sector, the Togolese Government maintains a 49% stake.

According to Art. 97 of Law No. 2020-001, the news director, editorial director or editor-in-chief of an audiovisual press company must be of Togolese nationality. This restriction was previously contained in Art. 39 of Law No. 98-004 on the Press and Communication Code, which required that the director of a radio or television station must be of Togolese nationality.

According to the Bangui Agreement, ratified by 17 French-speaking States, including Togo, applicants resident outside the territory of the Member States must file through an agent selected in one of those Member States (Section III, Art. 8). The professional status of agent accredited to the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) is governed by the Regulations on the profession of Authorised Agent before the OAPI.

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