White Collar Crime Archive

Over a year into the global pandemic, businesses have had to pivot to survive and adjust to new ways of conducting business. Now, more than ever, Asia Pacific business leaders are making the necessary strategic changes to meet the needs of a vastly changed business landscape — and deciding where legal expertise may be needed most to limit and manage disruption and soften risks. This report will delve into how businesses view rising protectionism, regulatory scrutiny and foreign investment restrictions, and how these views are directly impacting their supply chain strategies.

Our Asia Pacific Employment & Compensation Team is pleased to provide you with our first quarterly update for 2021 highlighting key employment law changes across the Asia Pacific region. Please feel free to visit our Building a New Workforce Reality and FutureWorks sites designed to guide global employers on how to future-proof your workforce and to stay competitive in innovating and revolutionizing your working practices.

Continuing our series of video chats on the Future of Disputes in Asia Pacific, we take a look at C&I trends and developments across the region. Mini vandePol, head of the Firm’s Asia Pacific Compliance & Investigations Group, and Georgie Farrant, head of Australia’s Dispute Resolution team, talk about global C&I trends that impact clients operating in Asia Pacific such as ESG, economic sanctions, anti-bribery/corruption developments and compliance programs.

In the first episode, Nandakumar Ponniya, chair of the Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Group, Cynthia Tang, head of the Hong Kong Dispute Resolution team, and Yoshiaki Muto, head of Tokyo’s Dispute Resolution team, discuss developments in commercial litigation around four key areas: (1) technology, (2) mediation, (3) international commercial courts, and (4) class actions in Asia Pacific.

The Malaysia Competition Commission has initiated the process of amending the Competition Act 2010 to introduce merger control regulations and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs is planning to table the legislative amendments to the Act by the end of 2021. Once in force, mergers and acquisitions which exceed certain thresholds will need to be reviewed and approved by the MyCC.

Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that on 9 April 2021, Singapore deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of ASEAN and became the first country to complete the official process for ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.

The Malaysia Competition Commission (“MyCC”) has initiated the process of amending the Competition Act 2010 (“Act”) to introduce merger control regulations and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs is planning to table the legislative amendments to the Act by the end of 2021. Once in force, mergers and acquisitions which exceed certain thresholds will need to be reviewed and approved by the MyCC.  This will greatly impact the timing, feasibility and structure of transactions in Malaysia.

In brief MyCC issues second abuse of dominance decision, in first finding on exclusive dealing MyCC has fined Dagang Net Technologies Sdn. Bhd. RM 10.3 million for abusing its dominant position by imposing software providers’ exclusivity. This update was published on 13 April 2021, as part of our quarterly newsletter, Asia Pacific Competition Highlights. Click here to access

Read publication In this regional update, we provide you with a practical overview of the most notable antitrust legal developments of the first quarter in 2021 that may affect your business. In this issue: Australia ACCC announces its compliance and enforcement priorities for 2021 Shipping company criminally convicted and fined AUD 24 million for cartel

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has charged a company and its director under the new corporate liability offence in connection with a count of bribery worth RM 321,350 paid to secure a subcontract.

This marks the first case under the new corporate liability regime and clearly demonstrates the MACC’s commitment in enforcing the corporate liability offence under Section 17A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (“Section 17A”), which recently came into force on 1 June 2020. 

In light of this, commercial organisations are urged to take immediate steps to ensure that they have in place “Adequate Procedures” as a statutory defence against an offence under Section 17A.

On 19 February 2021, the majority of the Malaysian Federal Court (“Federal Court”) delivered its much-anticipated judgment in Peguam Negara Malaysia v Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd and Another [2020] 4 MLJ 791 in respect of the allegation of contempt of court by way of comments posted by subscribers and readers on the Malaysiakini news portal on 9 June 2020.

The Federal Court in its majority decision held that Malaysiakini, an online platform provider, is liable  for third party comments which are offensive and inappropriate even though they had no knowledge of the same until notified and where the impugned comments were then promptly removed. Further, compliance with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Content Code (“Content Code”) did not shield Malaysiakini from liability. 

While the matter related to an offence of criminal contempt, the Federal Court’s decision is likely to impact and change the landscape of liability for online platform providers in Malaysia with regard to third party content. 

The Malaysian Ministry of Housing and Local Government has announced that the request for proposal (RFP) for a waste-to-energy project in Sungai Udang, Malacca (“WtE Project”) will be released on 18 February 2021. Consistent with the previous RFP for the waste-to-energy project located in Bukit Payong that was issued in August 2020, the WtE Project will be carried out on a public-private partnership basis. We understand the WtE Project is near to a current sanitary landfill and the driver is to reduce waste disposal rate at the landfill.

The WtE Project is the second of the six proposed waste-to-energy projects that the federal government of Malaysia is planning to develop by 2021.

On 15 January 2021, the UK Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) delivered its much-anticipated judgment in The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Limited and Others [2021] UKSC 1 in respect of a representative sample of business interruption property insurance (“Business Interruption”) policies. 

In light of the decision by the Supreme Court to construe the relevant clauses broadly, we anticipate that there will be an increase in claims by policyholders for losses resulting from business interruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic. 

Malaysian insurers are encouraged to revisit their existing Business Interruption policies, to consider how the existing policy wordings may be impacted by the judgment, and if needed, consider revising and refining their policies.

The Malaysian Finance Act 2020 introduced, among others, several legislative changes to the Malaysian Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA) in respect of transfer pricing. Notably, a penalty provision was introduced. Effective 1 January 2021, taxpayers (where applicable) who fail to furnish transfer pricing documentation (TPD) upon the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board’s (MIRB’s) request will be subject to a fine ranging from RM 20,000 to RM 100,000 and / or imprisonment.

Consistent with this, the MIRB has also revised the Transfer Pricing Guidelines 2012 to reduce the time given to taxpayers to furnish their TPD from 30 days to 14 days.