The Singapore Court of Appeal, in its recent decision of Reed, Michael v Bellingham, Alex (Attorney-General, intervener) [2022] SGCA 60, provides clarity on two provisions under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The first is section 4(1)(b), which states that the PDPA does not impose any obligation on any employee acting in the course of their employment with an organization. The second is the then section 32 (now section 48O), which allows individuals who suffer loss or damage as a result of an organization’s contravention of the PDPA, the right to commence private action against the organization.

On 14 September 2022, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) issued an alert on fake HSA accounts on Instagram that bear the HSA name, display photos and logos. The HSA clarified that it does not have an Instagram account and advises the public not to interact or respond to these fake accounts.

On 13 September 2022, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) issued a retail-level recall in respect of a therapeutic product found to contain foreign matter. Earlier this month, the HSA also issued an update on products found and reported by overseas regulators to contain potent ingredients, and briefly explained the possible side effects of the potent ingredients.

On 2 September 2022, the Singapore Ministry of Health announced that additional transitional support will be provided to cancer patients with changes introduced to the financing regime of cancer drugs.
Subsidies of clinically effective and cost effective cancer drugs will, with effect from 1 September 2022, be extended through the Medication Assistance Fund at Public Healthcare Institutions.
Additional transitional support will also be implemented to cushion the impact of cancer drug spending for patients with IPs that currently cover their treatments and patients with MediShield Life only.

On 16 August 2022, the Health Sciences Authority issued an update on products that were found by overseas regulators to contain potent ingredients. Such potent ingredients are banned from health products as they may cause certain side effects.

In the month of August 2022, the Health Sciences Authority issued several retail-level recalls in respect of therapeutic products and Chinese proprietary medicines that were in breach of applicable healthcare regulations.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will be introducing “Nutri-Grade”-related measures that will apply to freshly prepared beverages. From the end of 2023, all outlets selling freshly prepared beverages with higher sugar and saturated fat content will have to label such beverages with the “Nutri-Grade” mark. Outlets will also be prohibited from advertising freshly prepared beverages with the highest level of sugar and saturated fat content.

In July 2022, the Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission published a guide to help organisations comply with the Personal Data Protection Act when deploying blockchain applications that process personal data. As such, this Guide provides a broad set of principles and considerations for organisations to design their blockchain applications to be PDPA-compliant, thus ensuring more accountable management of customers’ personal data.

The Ministry of Communications and Information has released, in its Public Consultation published on 13 July 2022, more information on two proposed complementary codes to protect Singapore-based users against harmful and high-risk online content.
Social media platforms with significant reach or impact that are designated social media services will be in-scope for the new compliance obligations proposed by the MCI under the Code of Practice for Online Safety and all social media services are intended to be subject to the Content Code for Social Media Services.

On 6 July 2022, the Singapore Food Agency published a media release in relation to Lui Fammart’s illegal import of seafood, meat products and processed food from China. The sole proprietor of Lui Fammart was fined SGD 8,000 by the court.