On 12 March 2024, the Cabinet approved in principle the draft Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (No..), B.E. (“New Alcoholic Beverage Bill”) as proposed by the Ministry of Public Health. The New Alcoholic Beverage Bill has now been forwarded to the Office of the Council of State for further consideration.
The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has issued the finalized Advisory Guidelines on the Use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems (“Guidelines”). These Guidelines provide guidance on the use of personal data during three stages of AI system implementation: development, deployment (business-to-consumers) and procurement (business-to-business). In particular, the Guidelines clarify and elaborate on the application of the Consent Obligation and Notification Obligation, and their exceptions, under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) to the use of personal data in AI systems.
On 7 March 2024, the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, announced the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement priorities for 2024/25 and the market studies and advocacy work that the ACCC would continue this year.
Ms. Cass-Gottlieb identified a range of industry sectors, as well as specific competition and consumer law issues that will be the focus of the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement activities for 2024/25. Many of these areas continue from last year.
The New Bidding Law took effect on 1 January 2024. To facilitate the implementation of this New Bidding Law, effective from 27 February 2024, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 23/2024/ND-CP elaborating on the regulations of the New Bidding Law in terms of bidding for the selection of investors for projects that are subject to the bidding process under the regulations of specialized sectors.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore commenced an investigation under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003 (CPFTA) against a water filtration system supplier (“Supplier”) for unfair practices between September 2021 and November 2023.
The Supplier was found to be making false claims about its sales kit, misleading promotion listings, and misleading claims on the health benefits of alkaline or filtered water, from its website and social media pages.
The latest edition of our Asia Pacific Antitrust and Competition Handbook is now available and includes an overview of the key local competition rules applicable to intended transactions, agreements and other business practices in 14 Asia Pacific jurisdictions, and a quick reference table to highlight the different approaches of each jurisdiction.
Proposed licensing of social media and internet messaging services providers and a new draft bill on digital safety – these are some of the recent updates in the online content space for Malaysia. On 15 December 2023, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) reported that there was a significant increase in harmful content on social media and over-the-top platforms in 2023 as compared to in 2022. Against this backdrop, the Malaysian Government (as with its counterparts in the region) is increasingly concerned about online safety and the harms that materialize as part of the proliferation of online content.
The Ministry of Communications and Information has announced that the inter-agency Taskforce on the Resilience and Security of Digital Infrastructure and Services is studying the introduction of a Digital Infrastructure Act (DIA). The DIA builds on the Cybersecurity Act and aims to enhance the resilience and security of the digital infrastructure in Singapore. The scope of the DIA goes beyond cybersecurity and touches on other risks that may affect resilience.
The Health Sciences Authority is conducting a public consultation from 1 to 31 March 2024 on the proposed amendments to the Health Products (Therapeutic Products) Regulations 2016 on patent declaration.
The proposed amendments are intended to provide clarity to stakeholders on the types of patents that must be considered when making an application for registration of a therapeutic product, and for which the patent declaration regulations apply; and to minimize potential indiscriminate use of the patent declaration mechanism.
On 6 March 2024, the Health Sciences Authority issued an update on products found and reported by overseas regulators to contain potent ingredients prohibited in such products and which may lead to side effects.