Art. 11 of Decree No. 1399 grants the President of Venezuela the authority to implement temporary measures aimed at addressing adverse or unfavourable conditions impacting small and medium-sized industries, cooperatives, and other forms of community associations. These measures may include but are not limited to, the establishment of preferential contract amounts or categories, the use of procurement schemes that incorporate goods with national added value, the transfer of technology, and the inclusion of human resources.

The principal fixed-line telephony operator in Venezuela, Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela (Cantv), remains under the control of the Venezuelan government, although no precise and up-to-date information is publicly available regarding the exact percentage of state ownership beyond the fact that it constitutes a majority stake. Privatised in 1991, Cantv was renationalised in 2008 through Decree No. 5974/2008, which placed the company and its subsidiaries under the authority of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology. Cantv also owns Movilnet, the country’s main mobile telephony operator. By 2022, when the state held 86.2% of Cantv’s shareholding, the government announced its intention to sell a portion of shares in both Cantv and Movilnet to private, including foreign, investors. The first sale of shares occurred in October 2022, followed by further offerings through the Caracas Stock Exchange in November and December 2023.

According to Art. 12 of Decree No. 1399, contracting entities are required to ensure the inclusion of goods and services produced in Venezuela by establishing objective evaluation criteria that prioritise these goods during the bid evaluation process.

Venezuela does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, it is reported that there is an obligation of accounting separation. The Organic Telecommunications Law establishes in the Final Provisions (13th) that the regulations of this Law may provide for the obligation of telecommunications operators to separate their accounting by services in order to guarantee transparency in their operations and allow effective control by the Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (National Telecommunications Commission) and by the Superintendencia para la Promoción y Protección de la Libre Competencia (Superintendency for the Promotion and Protection of Free Competition), in accordance with the rules established for such purpose.

Art. 13 of Decree No. 1399 stipulates that, for the selection of bids where the prices do not exceed 5% of the best-evaluated bid, preference shall be given to the bid that meets the following criteria:
- in the procurement of goods, the offer with the highest national added value;
- in the procurement of works and services, the bid submitted by a bidder whose leading domicile is in Venezuela has a greater incorporation of national parts and inputs and a greater participation of national human resources, including at the managerial level.
Once the above criteria have been applied, if the evaluation yields two or more bids with equal results, preference will be given to the bidder that has greater national participation in its capital.

Art. 5 of the Organic Telecommunications Law provides that to establish or operate telecommunications networks and to provide telecommunications services, the prior obtaining of the corresponding administrative authorisation, concession or permit, if necessary, shall be required in the cases and conditions established by the legislation and the National Telecommunications Commission. The mentioned activities and services may be subject to quality parameters and special goals of uniform minimum coverage, as well as to the provision of services under preferential conditions of access and prices to certain public institutions.

It is reported that Venezuela’s public procurement system suffers from limited transparency, insufficient public access to procurement information and weaknesses in the use and oversight of competitive tendering procedures. More recent reports indicate that tendering, contract-award and implementation information is generally not published, while emergency procedures and direct awards have increasingly been associated with corruption risks and documented cases of grand corruption.

Venezuela has only partially appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

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

According to Arts. 34-35 of the Organic Telecommunications Law (Gaceta Oficial No. 39.610: Ley Orgánica de Telecomunicaciones), the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process. However, Art. 40 provides that the Board of Directors is made up of the General Director of the National Telecommunications Commission, who presides over it, and four directors who are freely appointed and removed by the President of the Republic.

Venezuela regulates foreign investment under the Constitutional Law on Productive Foreign Investment, published in Official Gazette No. 41,310 of 29 December 2017. The Law does not establish a horizontal foreign equity cap and, under Art. 33, foreign investments are generally entitled to treatment equivalent to that afforded to domestic investments.

Art. 35 of the Constitutional Law of Productive Foreign Investment establishes that all foreign investment must comply with several conditions, among which is to contribute to national economic development. In this regard, Art. 40 states that the governing body has broad supervisory powers for the purpose of verifying compliance with this Constitutional Law.

Art. 19 of the Constitutional Law on Foreign Productive Investment establishes that in order to be registered, foreign investment must be for a minimum amount, CNY 6,500,000 or its equivalent in another foreign currency (approx. 940,000 USD).

It is reported that patent examination in Venezuela has, in recent years, progressed at an exceptionally slow pace, with backlogs in some cases exceeding 10 years. The average period from filing to grant is understood to be approximately 10 to 12 years. In addition, it is reported that patent applications may not be filed in a foreign language, meaning that all applications must be submitted in Spanish.

Venezuela is not a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).