The Office of the Consumer Protection Board has published the Notification of the Advertising Committee on Guidelines for Using Advertising Statements in Manners That Affirm Facts That Are Difficult to Prove and Guidelines for Proving the Facts Concerning Advertising Statements, B.E. 2565 (2022) in the Government Gazette on 13 January 2023, effective on 14 January 2023.
The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has issued new announcements to respond to new businesses and future investment trends and to attract investors to invest in Thailand. The BOI aims to boost innovation, competitiveness, and inclusivity as well as sustainable development of Thailand’s economy in accordance with the current National Economic and Social Development Plan and the country’s development policies.
On Monday 27 March 2023, the Indonesian Competition Commission (Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha, (KPPU)) sought input from stakeholders on its plan to overhaul the current merger control rules. KPPU is proposing to replace KPPU Regulation No. 3 of 2019 on Merger Filing Procedures. Key changes include the introduction of an electronic portal, narrowing the definition of assets for the calculation of asset thresholds to Indonesian assets only, and introducing three exits for transactions without competition concerns.
On 22 February 2023, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore successfully obtained a court order against Triple Lifestyle Marketing Pte. Ltd., a water system retailer, over unfair trading practices.
The European Union actively uses anti-dumping and anti-subsidy (or countervailing duty) investigations to protect the EU industry. Imports from Indonesia are a prime target for these investigations. Since 2003, imports from Indonesia were targeted in 15 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, and four of these investigations were initiated in the last three years.
Under current Australian arrangements, the “Safeguard Mechanism” requires Australian facilities that produce over 100,000 tonnes of carbon annually (or an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases), known as “Safeguard Facilities”, to keep their net emissions below a baseline (or ceiling), which has been determined on a facility specific basis. To meet its international commitments to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the Australian government has proposed changes to the operation of the Safeguard Mechanism with the effect of reducing carbon emissions over time. Those proposed changes have now been extended to secure the political support required to enable the passage of these legislative reforms through federal parliament.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed its intention to table the Health Information Bill (Bill) in the second half of 2023. Through the Bill, the MOH seeks to enable the collection of patients’ selected health data from healthcare providers and to allow healthcare providers to share patient information with one another in a safe and secure manner.
Following the implementation of the Healthcare Services Act in phases since January 2020, the Ministry of Health announced the first and second reading of the Healthcare Services (Amendment) Bill (Bill) on 6 February 2023 and 6 March 2023 respectively. If passed, most of the amendments as set out in the Bill will be implemented together with the second phase of implementation of the Healthcare Services Act in mid-2023.
The Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Act 2022 (“Act”), which came into force on 7 March 2023 and amends the Carbon Pricing Act 2018, seeks to advance Singapore’s transition towards net-zero.
The Act aims to encourage emitters of greenhouse gases to proactively reduce emissions by:
(a) progressively increasing carbon tax rates;
(b) introducing an industry transition framework to provide transitory allowances to companies in Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed sectors;
(c) setting up an International Carbon Credits framework; and
(d) revising the list of greenhouse gases and their Global Warming Potential Values.
On 21 March 2023, the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) under the Ministry of Information and Communications released a white list specifying local service providers whose online websites and/or social networks are verified and suitable for online advertisements (“White List”). This is part of ABEI’s initiative to encourage brands and advertisers to prioritize displaying advertisements on non-violating websites.