Database

Costa Rica is not a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement.

The Ministry of Finance and the state run power company of Heredia (Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia) (ESPH) have been denounced by the Costa Rican Chamber of Information and Communication Technologies for anti-competitive practices in the market of digital technologies. It is alleged that the Ministry of Finance evaded the regular process of procurement biding to award a contract for the creation of an electronic invoicing to ESPH for USD 8 million, whereas the cost of this service is estimated to not exceed USD 3 Million.

The proposed Strengthening of Public Finances Law in Costa Rica includes a 15% tax over the aggregated value of television streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Itunes Store and HBO Go.

The general consumer protection law covers e-commerce transactions. The customer has the right to withdraw a purchase within five days from the transaction. The Colombian Chamber of e-commerce reports that this can create significant costs for suppliers, for example in tourism services and ticket sales.

Only org.co is limited to Colombian residents. Other domains such as .co and com.co can be registered by anyone includnig foreigners.

A report from the Colombian Chamber of e-commerce states that the withholding tax for small e-payments can be burdensome for small enterprises and emerging businesses. Three different taxes make up to a 4.3% VAT required for small transactions.

The "Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones" (CRC) is the telecommunications regulating agency in Colombia. All voice cellular products, most satellite equipment and products that connect to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) require CRC certification. The CRC may accept foreign standard test reports, but the submission and payment of the approval package have to be handled in person.

As part of its strategy to curtail mobile phone theft, Decree 2025 established extensive administrative requirements for trade in mobile phones and created barriers to export them even for legitimate purposes, such as warranty repairs or recycling. In particular, the decree mandates that each mobile phone have a government-issued International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) verification certificate at the time of import and requires all importers and exporters to preregister with the National Police in order to trade in mobile phones.

Decree 2142 modified a number of Decree 2025's Provisions, and in particular allows more flexibility with respect to the documentary requirements for the export of used phones, e.g., for servicing and repair, or recycling and safe disposal of electronic waste.

As part of its strategy to curtail mobile phone theft, Decree 2025 of 2015 established extensive administrative requirements for trade in mobile phones and created barriers to export them even for legitimate purposes, such as warranty repairs or recycling. In particular, the decree mandates that each mobile phone has a government-issued International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) verification certificate at the time of import and requires all importers and exporters to preregister with the National Police in order to trade in mobile phones.

Decree 2142 of 2016 modified a number of Decree 2025's Provisions, and in particular allows more flexibility with respect to the documentary requirements for the export of used phones, e.g., for servicing and repair, or recycling and safe disposal of electronic waste.

Colombia has recently issued a net neutrality regulation leaving space for mobile operators to grant preferential treatment to some data over another, but there are no complaints of anticompetitive traffic prioritisation cases yet.

In March 2017, Colombia’s gambling regulator submitted a list of over 300 gambling sites to be blocked by ISPs, following the approval of online gambling legislation in October 2016, which requires gambling sites to apply for a license.

There is no special law concerning liability of intermediaries on the Internet. The FTA between Colombia and the United Sates has miscellaneous rules concerning Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Internet Service Providers (ISP) liability, which resemble closely the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provisions. However, the internal legislative proposals implementing the agreement and related intermediary liability provisions have been rejected by congress and regulation is still pending.

A breach the provisions of Laws 1266 and Law 1581 can result in penalties of up to 2,000 Minimum Monthly Legal Wages (approx. 670.000 USD) for each case and sanctions that include the temporary or permanent closure of the professional or commercial activities of the subject who breached the data protection regime.

Article 4 of Decree 1704 states that communications providers must retain and store for a period of 5 years subscribers personal information (identity, address, localization), which must be available to the Attorney General or any competent authority at any time and in real time.