On 26 February 2022, the Turkish Ministry of Trade introduced various changes regarding the control and inspection of certain imported goods, which are effective immediately.
The European Court of Justice released its judgement on 8 March 2022 in relation to Case C-213/19 (Commission v United Kingdom), concerning the UK’s undervaluing of imports of textiles and footwear from China and associated failure to fulfil obligations regarding customs control and the recovery of EU own resources, through failing to adopt measures necessary to combat fraud.
The new year, 2022, has officially started with the launch and coming into force of novel legal policies that may impact the operations in general and workforce in particular of enterprises in Vietnam, especially those with foreign employees. This post highlights these developments.
On 28 February 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission opened a public consultation on options for legislative reform to address concerns relating to the perceived dominance of certain digital platform services in Australia. The consultation discussion paper outlines options for addressing potential perceived harms to competition, consumers, and business users across a range of digital platform services markets, such as the social media, search, app, online retail and ad tech markets.
Earlier this year, the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Department released several documents to aid data users in their compliance with the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010 – these include a guide on privacy notices, new codes of practice applicable to the private healthcare industry and the water utilities industry, as well as circulars reminding prescribed classes of data users of their registration obligations.
In an announcement made on 4 March 2022, the Philippine National Privacy Commission officially extended the validity of all existing Certificates of Registration issued in 2021 from 8 March 2022 to 8 March 2023. For Certificates of Registration issued in 2020 or earlier, which are expiring this 8 March 2022, the NPC is directing all affected personal information controllers and personal information processors to renew their registration with the Commission.
On 18 January 2022, HM Treasury confirmed that it will bring certain cryptoassets into the scope of the financial promotion regime. The Treasury’s view is that the evidence of risks to consumers provides a strong case for intervention, and as such it intends to expand the scope of the Financial Promotions Order to include cryptoassets. The Treasury’s announcement was followed the next day by the launch of an FCA consultation on strengthening the financial promotion rules for high-risk investments, including cryptoassets.
A recent case before the South Africa Competition Tribunal looked at the excessive pricing of breast cancer treatment. This led to the question as to whether a violation of competition law should automatically be considered a violation of the Constitution.
The Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCERT), set up by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to facilitate the detection, resolution and prevention of cybersecurity-related incidents on the internet, has issued a list of measures that organisations should adopt to ensure proper cyber hygiene controls are in place and operating correctly. SingCERT’s advisory is issued on the basis of warnings of increased cyber threats globally arising from the recent cyberattacks on Ukraine and the developments in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
On 27 January 2022, the government issued Decree No. 14/2022/ND-CP to amend and supplement several provisions of Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in the fields of postal services, telecommunications, radio frequency, information technology and electronic transactions, and Decree No. 119/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in journalistic and publishing activity. Decree No. 14 was issued with the aim of: implementing the new provisions of the amended Law on Handling Administrative Violations, supplementing sanctions for the violating acts, including those regarding spam, illegal content, social network management, game licensing, etc., and revising and supplementing provisions regarding the authorities to fine administrative violations.