Korea is a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

The Act on Contracts to Which the State is a Party excludes, under Art. 4, international bidding for certain public procurement tenders in cases where:
- the procurement is for goods or services required for producing other goods or services intended for sale or resale;
- the products are manufactured by SMEs and purchased in accordance with the Act on Facilitation of Purchase of Small and Medium Enterprise-Manufactured Products and Support for Development of their Markets (Act on SMEs);
- a Presidential Decree prohibits such bidding in line with the Government Procurement Agreement.
Similarly, under Art. 5 of the Act on Contracts to Which a Local Government is a Party, international bidding for local government procurement is regulated in the same way. It is reported that the Act on Facilitation of Purchase of Small and Medium Enterprise-Manufactured Products, which governs procurement under these frameworks, classifies foreign-invested enterprises as "large" companies solely because they are foreign or multinational. As a result, such "large" foreign companies can only participate in projects exceeding USD 220,000.

According to Art. 48 of the Software Industry Promotion Act, participation in government-led software procurement is limited to SMEs. The Act allows the participation of "large" companies in exceptional circumstances. It is reported that this has effectively limited certain bids on software procurement, leaving out multinational firms.

Under Art. 69 of the Electronic Government Act, enacted in 2001, and Cryptographic Module Testing and Validation Guidelines (Guidelines), promulgated in 2004, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) operates the Korea Cryptographic Module Validation Program (KCMVP). KCMVP validates that software, network (such as VPN and SW USB series), and hardware equipment that deals with non-confidential yet important information comply with the Cryptographic Module Validation Standards, which were amended in 2015. Appropriate encryption standards are developed in Korea, such as ARIA, SEED, LEA, and Hight. It is reported that the lack of recognition of other international encryption standards constitutes a barrier for foreign suppliers.
Under the Guidelines, suppliers of software, networks (such as VPN and SW USB series), and hardware equipment that deals with non-confidential yet important information must also submit the source code of their products to pass the Cryptographic Module Validation Process. It is reported that source code could potentially be required as part of common criteria certification administered by the IT Security Certification Center, a requirement for public procurement of cloud computing services.

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."

According to Section 3 of the National Payment System Act, the Central Bank is empowered to designate a payment system. In addition, Section 12 prohibits unauthorised companies from conducting business with a payment service provider. Furthermore, pursuant to Art. 43 of the National Payment System Regulations, e-money issued shall be subject to an individual transaction limit that shall not exceed seventy thousand shillings (approx. USD 560) and an aggregate monthly load limit of one million shillings (approx. USD 7,990), provided that the Central Bank may approve higher limits for specific categories of e-money issuers. The limits may be amended by the Central Bank from time to time.

It is reported that the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is KSH 2,580 (approx. USD 20), below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The Kenya Information and Communications (Consumer Protection) Regulation provides a comprehensive consumer protection framework that applies to online transactions.

Kenya has not signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Kenya has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Kenya has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

Companies have expressed concerns regarding the prolonged duration for Kenyan Customs to release shipments, along with the excessive formalities involved. The one-stop customs clearance system in Kenya reportedly does not function as expected, and the pre-arrival processing of electronic documents is ineffective. Additionally, there are reports of inconsistent application of classification and valuation decisions within the system, as well as unnecessary transit inspections.

According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, an application for Type Approval must be made using the Application Form for Type Approval/Type Acceptance of ICT Equipment. It is reported that the homologation procedure in Kenya is more complicated than in most African countries. Depending on regulations and type of equipment, the authority may require product samples for further examination or simply issue an exemption letter. The validity period of conformity documents can be unlimited (exemption letters) or limited to 6 months (certificates of conformity) after which the authority automatically issues an unlimited certificate.