On June 7, 2022, Tilleke & Gibbins’ Bangkok and Vietnam offices collaborated with other regional members of the Lifesciences Asia-Pacific Network (LAN) to present a webinar on data protection regulations across several Asia-Pacific jurisdictions—particularly in relation to the life sciences and healthcare sector. In the first half of this high-engagement session, Nopparat Lalitkomon, senior associate in the firm’s corporate and commercial group in Bangkok, was joined by top data privacy experts from Australia, China, and Japan as the speakers provided a comprehensive update on key legal developments in personal data protection in each jurisdiction. In the second half of the presentation, Waewpen Piemwichai, senior associate in the firm’s corporate and commercial group in Vietnam, participated in a panel discussion together with the rest of the speakers to compare noteworthy aspects of data privacy laws in Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific jurisdictions, including India. Tilleke & Gibbins is a founding member of LAN, which brings together eight leading life sciences law firms from across the Asia-Pacific region to provide clients with a one-stop shop for support and guidance on legal and regulatory needs across the life sciences sector, covering human, animal, and crop health along with food, animal feed, medical devices, cosmetics, and hazardous substances.

Michael Ramirez, a counsel in Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group in Bangkok, will provide the Thailand legal outlook at a Thailand Regional Forum meeting to be held at Sasin School of Management on June 9, 2022. The event will be a special relaunch meeting of the Thailand Regional Forum, an initiative established by Dataconsult some 35 years ago. After a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the forum is restarting with Sasin School of Management as its new home. The Thailand Regional Forum at Sasin plans to hold regular meetings from July onward. The meeting will consist of forecasting panel presentations and roundtable discussions. In addition to Michael’s presentation of the legal outlook for Thailand, other speakers will offer insights into Thailand’s political, risk, economic, and human resources outlook in the coming year. Following the presentations, the speakers and attendees will participate in a roundtable discussions and Q&A to address any questions that came up during the session and to consider various potential scenarios. For more information on the Thailand Regional Forum, which offers memberships on a corporate basis, please see the Dataconsult website.

On May 24, 2022, Tilleke & Gibbins was joined by the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) in holding an event entitled “7-Day Countdown: What to Know about Personal Data Protection Act Enforcement” at the Conrad Bangkok hotel. The event aimed to equip the British business community in Thailand with essential knowledge to be fully compliant with the law. During the event,  Nopparat Lalitkomon, senior associate, and Gvavalin Mahakunkitchareon, associate, walked attendees through the following key considerations: Roles and responsibilities of data controllers and data processors; Management of personal data collected prior to the effective date of the PDPA; and Practical advice to avoid potential pitfalls. The event concluded with a networking reception in which participants had an opportunity to connect and discuss further details with the firm’s PDPA experts.

On April 20, three attorneys from Tilleke & Gibbins’ corporate and commercial group—Gvavalin Mahakunkitchareon, associate; Nopparat Lalitkomon, senior associate; and Pongpalin Chantrapirom, associate—offered a Thai-language webinar entitled “Personal Data Protection Compliance Preparation.” During the session, the three speakers gave a comprehensive overview of Thailand’s data protection regulatory regime to assist attendees in complying with the Personal Data Protection Act BE 2562 (PDPA), which will come into full effect on June 1, 2022. In particular, the speakers covered the following topics: Key principles of personal data collection; PDPA compliance considerations for insurance companies; Notification of data collection and data processing in accordance with the law; Managing personal data collected prior to the effective date of the PDPA; Penalties for noncompliance with the PDPA; and Comparative case studies involving the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). A recording of the webinar (in Thai) is available on the Tilleke & Gibbins YouTube channel.