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Domestic companies are required to have not less than PHP 5,000 (approx. USD 112) capital. However, a company with more than 40% foreign equity must have a minimum capital of PHP 9,000,000 (approx. USD 200,000) if it produces goods for sale or engages in business in the Philippines. If it exports at least 60% of its output, the minimum paid-in capital required is PHP 5,000 (approx. USD 112).

The Philippines' Retail Trade Liberalization Act includes a minimum capital requirement of 2,500,000 USD for investments in retail, including E-retail. The law states that a retail enterprise with paid-up capital of less than this amount "shall be reserved exclusively for Filipino citizens and corporations wholly owned by Filipino citizens."

It has been reported that there are plans to reduce to the requirement to 200,000 USD.

The Securities and Exchange Commission restricts only to Philippine nationals the commercial operation of an online platform to market or sell third party products and services.

Under the Philippines Constitution, foreign equity ownership in public utilities, including telecommunication companies, must not exceed 40%. This also applies to value added services, which are also classified as public utilities.

The Philippines are not a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement.

Government procurement laws and regulations favour Philippine-controlled companies and locally produced materials and supplies. The main legislation which lays out these preferences is the Commonwealth Act 138 (1936), which allows for a 15% price preference for domestic bidders on materials and supplies for public use.

Furthermore, the Constitution (Sections 10 & 12) provides for a strong preference to procure domestically. It requires the state to give preference to qualified Filipinos when granting concessions (Section 10) and to promote the preferential use of Filipino labour, domestic materials and locally produced goods, and requires the State to adopt measures that help make them competitive (Section 12).

The Republic Act 9184 (2002) / Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) applies to all branches of government (including government owned and controlled corporations). For the procurement of goods and consulting services, foreign participation is limited to 40%, with consideration of reciprocity.

Exceptions exist for cases where goods are not available from local providers if necessary to prevent situations that defeat competition or restrain trade; and
and local consultants do not have the sufficient expertise/capability to render the services required under the project, or when provided under any treaty or international or executive agreement.

The 2003 Government Procurement Act sought to consolidate procurement laws, simplify prequalification procedures, introduce objective and non-discretionary criteria in the selection process and establish an electronic single portal for government procurement activities.

However, the implementation of the Act remains inconsistent and business complaints have been recorded. US companies have expressed concerns about delayed procurement decisions and payments, as well as differing interpretations of the procurement law among Philippine government agencies.

There have also been complaints by European companies which often focus on:
- tight deadlines for tender submissions;
- overly complex requirements (certifications, business licensing etc.);
- indirect discrimination through technical specifications;
- requirements to disclose confidential and sensitive business details relating to past tenders won.

Since 2016 Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has been drawing up plans aimed at taxing foreign-supplied digital services. One of the points of focus for the Philippine tax authorities are companies that sell services via social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. The services covered in any potential piece of legislation would attract value-added tax (VAT), the current VAT rate in the Philippines is 12%.

An Internet service provider (Orcon) has reported that the incumbent (Spark New Zealand, formerly Telecom New Zealand) throtlled broadband traffic.

The "ought to have known" concept applies in New Zealand. According to this concept, page hosts "ought to have known" that comments were being posted that were likely to be defamatory. This might incentivise intermediaries to monitor their services in order to locate defamatory material. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand recently ruled that a third party publisher, the owner of a Facebook page that contained comments by others, was not held liable for defamation without "actual knowledge".

In New Zealand, there is no general legal definition of internet intermediaries nor any general law on Internet intermediary liability. The official government position is that no safe harbor provision is required to protect Internet Services Providers (ISPs) providing referral or linking services from liability, because the provision of such services does not constitute copyright infringement.

Nevertheless, sections 92B, 92C and 92E of Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 specify in which cases an ISP does not infringe copyright laws. For example, in relation to objectionable material, “the law exempted ISPs from liability as far as they provide access to content; it did not exempt them from hosting or caching objectionable content.”

According to the Privacy Act, every public and private sector agency must have at least one data privacy officer.

The Telecommunications Information Privacy Code 2003 prohibits the retention of telecommunications information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may be lawfully used. The Code was enacted under the Privacy Act 1993 in order to amend the information privacy principles in the Act with regard to telecommunications agencies. The Code affects all telecommunications agencies (including telephone companies, publishers of telephone directories, Internet service providers, mobile telephone retailers and call centers) in their handling of personal customer information.