Chambers Global Practice Guides TMT

1. Metaverse

1.1 Laws and Regulations

Research conducted by an online comparison service, Uswitch, has ranked Malta as the fourth most metaverse-ready nation out of 34 countries analysed, with a total score of 7.31 out of ten. Various aspects were considered in arriving at the ranking, including the median fixed broadband speed and its cost, the number of blockchain financial services start-ups, hi-tech exports per capita and the number of searches per million on the metaverse. With this technology being still relatively young, the legal issues surrounding the metaverse and its use have not been specifically analysed or addressed in Malta, and thus there is no specific legal framework nor explicit laws that deal with the matter. Nonetheless, the technology is already regulated to some extent by existing laws, such as consumer law, data protection, product liability and general civil and criminal law. This being said, more widespread use of the metaverse