Art. 26.2 of the Constitution of the Republic establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries for copyright infringements. Chapter XV of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) of 2007 between the United States of America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua devotes its Art. 27 to the limitations of liability of intermediaries for copyright infringement in the digital environment. This is applicable in the country by mandate of Art. 26.2 of the Constitution of the Republic, which establishes that the rules in force of ratified international conventions shall govern internally. However, it is reported that, in practice, there have been cases in 2013 in which the courts have considered companies liable not only for violating copyright but also for the mere fact of hosting the website where the infringement takes place and, therefore, encouraging the infringement through its economic sponsorship.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in the Dominican Republic's law and jurisprudence.

Art. 11.2 of the General Regulation of the Telephone Service stipulates that service providers are under an obligation to request, record, and verify the applicant’s general particulars in order to substantiate their capacity and eligibility to enter into a service contract; for the purposes of this Regulation, telephone service denotes a national or international telecommunications service intended for the transmission of voice, whether fixed or mobile, irrespective of the technology or modality employed in its provision. Should the information supplied by the user prove to be inaccurate, the provider is required to refuse the formation of the contract and to deny the applicant access to the telephone service.

Under operative clauses 1, 2 and 4 of Resolution No. 029-01, telecommunications terminals, equipment and systems that use the radio spectrum require prior authorisation from the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) before their entry into the country or release from Customs. Applicants must provide information on the importer, the relevant concession, licence or special registration, and the equipment’s technical characteristics, including its model, serial number, type approval and transmitter power. Following a technical assessment, INDOTEL may grant or deny the authorisation or request additional information. Applications are currently submitted electronically through the Single Window for Foreign Trade (VUCE), and Customs may not release the covered equipment without INDOTEL’s authorisation.

Self-certification is allowed in the country for radio transmission, electromagnetic interference (EMI) or electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). The country allows foreign companies to self-certify that they comply with these standards, through a Supplier Declaration of Conformity (SDoC).

Since January 2021, electronic payment accounts have been subject to caps on the amount that may be loaded into or held in the account, thereby limiting the funds available for online payments. Although Art. 20(f) of the Payment Systems Regulation expressly permits these accounts to be used for e-commerce payments, Art. 21 initially set the applicable ceiling at DOP 60,000 (approx. USD 1,020) during any 30-day period. The base ceiling was increased to DOP 75,200 (approx. USD 1,280) in 2025 and, under the framework currently in force, applies to natural persons, while ceilings of three times that amount, DOP 225,600 (approx. USD 3,830), and four times that amount, DOP 300,800 (approx. USD 5,110), apply to natural persons engaged in commercial activities and legal persons, respectively. Thus, the restriction does not prohibit online payments but limits the amount that can be funded through these accounts.

Law No. 20-00 provides a framework for effective protection of trade secrets. Chapters I and II of Title VI include a definition and conditions to protect a secret, what constitutes unfair competition related to trade secrets, what are the unfair means of access to a trade secret, information for sales authorisation and the actions that may be brought against this act of unfair competition.

There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised both in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements. According to Art. 5 of the Infrastructure Sharing Regulation, passive infrastructure providers shall share passive infrastructures or related facilities requested by the requesting providers, provided that such sharing is feasible from the technical, security and operational point of view. Such sharing shall be done in a non-discriminatory manner at fair and reasonable prices and conditions. Infrastructure owners shall facilitate access to such infrastructure on equal, transparent and non-discriminatory terms to providers that install or operate public telecommunications networks. Infrastructure sharing is effective in both the mobile and fixed sectors.

The Dominican Republic does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there has been an obligation to separate the accounts since 1998. According to Art. 30.h of the Law No. 153/1998 - General Telecommunications Law, in case a concessionaire provides several public telecommunications services, it must keep separate accounts for each service, in order to enable the control of fair and effective competition.

Chapter V of the General Telecommunications Law addresses concessions and licences. It is reported that a minimum capital requirement must be satisfied in order to obtain a licence; however, no such requirement has been identified in the relevant legal provisions.

The Dominican Republic has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

According to Art. 76 of the General Telecommunications law, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

It is reported that public procurement in the Dominican Republic is not carried out in a transparent manner and that corruption is a problem.

The Dominican Republic is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2022.

Law No. 16-95 on Foreign Investment in the Dominican Republic permits full foreign ownership (100%) across all sectors relevant to digital trade.