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We provide you with all of the latest legal developments in Southeast Asia, ensuring that you have the up-to-date knowledge you need to navigate the ever-changing legal landscape affecting your business. You can browse our entire library of publications below, and email [email protected] to sign up for updates that are relevant to your interests, delivered straight to your mailbox, as they emerge.
In response to the recent uptick in cases of COVID-19 found in Myanmar, and concern about the disease’s spread, all branches of Myanmar’s Office of Registration and Deeds (ORD) have temporarily ceased accepting declarations.
With many employees in Thailand working outside their company’s normal IT security fence, their increased use of their own computers and devices instead of those in their offices with standard or enhanced security mechanisms has made it more challenging for employers to control access to key business information. In the rush to set up a fully or partially remote workforce, most companies have had little time to establish work-from-home guidelines on protection of their valuable intangible assets like trade secrets and confidential business information.
Are importers and distributors responsible for patent infringement related to the products they import and distribute? This seemingly simple question has still only been partially answered in Vietnam, when the Superior People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City rendered a judgment on 28 July 2020 sending a case back to the first-instance court for a retrial.
Cambodia’s new Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law (the “2020 AML/CFT Law”) came into force in June 2020, abrogating the 2007 law of the same name and the accompanying sub-decree from 2013.The 2020 AML/CFT Law differs in three major ways from the 2007 law: (1) more specific definitions, (2) a requirement for reporting entities to introduce enhanced due diligence measures, and (3) increased penalties for non-compliance.Altered Definitions of Legal Terms
By recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Thailand is preparing to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999) (AMLA) and the Counter Terrorism and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Financing Act B.E. 2559 (2016) in order to be consistent with international standards. The public hearing on the draft acts was completed on June 15, 2020, and the laws will now continue through the cabinet and parliament. Key Draft Amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act
A new notification from the Thai government will introduce a second phase of reductions to required Social Security Fund (SSF) contribution rates. The new notification will reduce required contributions to 2% of employees’ wages, for both employers and employees, for a period of three months.
On July 31, 2020, Thailand’s Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) imposed a host of new measures aimed at regulating the issuance of insurance policies and the conduct and duties of insurance agents and brokers.These measures are contained in two new notifications: the Notification re: Conditions Relating to the Issuing and Offering of Insurance Policies of Insurance Companies; and the Notification re: Duties of Life and Non-life Insurance Agents, Brokers, and Banks. The key provisions to note are identified below.General Duties of Insurance Companies
Several Thai government agencies have acted in concert to provide many taxpayers with an additional extension to the deadline for paying the 2020 land and building tax (LBT), and to clarify procedural matters for collecting the new tax, which is being instituted for the first time in 2020.
