Every country has its own customs measures in place to monitor goods crossing its borders. These measures are implemented by customs departments and other government agencies that facilitate international trade by checking shipments and collecting taxes on goods that enter and leave the country. Laos is one of the many countries that have sought to create a favorable environment for operators to export, transit, move, and store goods. In addition to tax collection duties, the Lao Customs Department also has measures to safeguard IP rights and prevent unfair competition, including protections against the infringement of trademarks and copyright—measures that have been in place since 2011. This year, Laos further improved its framework for enforcing IP rights through border measures against infringing goods. In February 2022, the government published new customs instructions that added industrial designs to the list of safeguarded IP rights for the Lao Customs Department. This means that an IP owner can now request the Lao Customs Department to take action on products infringing a protected industrial design under the customs border measures. Procedures The Lao Customs Department enables IP rights holders to protect their IP by allowing them to request the suspension of clearance for any goods imported, exported, or transiting in Laos on the grounds that a trademark, copyright, or industrial design is being or is likely to be infringed. To be eligible for this protection, IP rights holders must submit a request for a Declaration of Ownership to the Customs Department. Once approved, the application is forwarded to the provincial and capital customs offices to serve as a reference for officers inspecting goods crossing the Lao border. The Declaration of Ownership should be accompanied by the relevant written form for inspection and supervision of goods that are the subject of IP rights. Various other information and documentary evidence is also

In copyright disputes in many countries around the world, experts who can provide professional opinions based on their deep expertise in specific fields play a very important role. It is the same in Vietnam when copyright disputes are brought to court. The judges and court staff may have almost no knowledge in specific areas of settlement such as fine arts, music, or computer programs. For this reason, they focus only on the legal aspect of the cases; however, the legal aspect can only be considered on the basis of analysis from experts, commonly known in Vietnam as “assessment” (or expert opinion). Assessment Has Become Essential For copyright disputes that are resolved in court, except in cases where the behavior is very clear, a court order only occurs when there are assessment conclusions. The legal basis for considering assessment conclusions as an important source of evidence can be found in the 2005 Law on Intellectual Property, as amended in June 2022, and its subordinate legal documents. However, the particular importance of assessment is not shown in legislation but rather in practice, through the fact that the courts and procuracies attach great importance to these assessment conclusions and treat them as necessary—sometimes even compulsory—documents from which they make their judgments and rulings. It is rare for a court to express any opinion on the contents of an assessment conclusion, and rarer still for a court to make a judgment or ruling that is contrary to the conclusion. Thus, it seems that assessment conclusions, though originally intended as reference points only, are becoming decisive documents in many cases. In other words, the party that wins the assessment conclusion is much more likely to win the case. An Obstacle to Be Resolved For better or worse, assessment has become very important in the process of settling a case.

Following the delisting of cannabis grown in Thailand as a narcotic substance on June 9, 2022, many have explored the applications of cannabis in various fields, including medicine, healthcare, food products, cosmetics, and animal feed. For example, a poultry farm in northern Thailand conducted an experiment jointly with Chiang Mai University, mixing crushed cannabis into poultry feed and water. The experiment showed several benefits of this cannabis feed. Birds that were fed cannabis had lower mortality rates and achieved superior body mass, with increased levels of protein, fat, and moisture in the meat, leading to this method of organic bird farming yielding higher profits. Despite the results of this experiment, the mechanisms and action of cannabis in animal feed are still not yet fully understood, and there are concerns about the possible effects on human health of consuming cannabis-fed poultry. Until recently, cannabis regulations focused solely on the safety of use by humans, and there were no regulations on the use of cannabis in animals. However, on October 11, 2022, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) published Notification Re: Guidelines on the Use of Hemp and Marijuana as Especially Controlled Animal Feed or Their Use as Ingredients in Especially Controlled Animal Feed in the Government Gazette. In general, the DLD notification requires that animal feed containing cannabis be shown to benefit the animals without causing concern for their safety. According to the Animal Feed Quality Control Act B.E. 2558 (2015), especially controlled animal feed must be registered before it can be manufactured domestically or imported into Thailand. The DLD notification lays down the following evaluation criteria for registration of animal feed containing cannabis: It is prohibited to use cannabis (both hemp and marijuana) apexes (i.e., leaf tips), inflorescence, or seeds—including extracts from apexes, inflorescence, or seeds—as especially controlled animal feed or as an ingredient

On November 8, 2022, the Act Amending the Civil and Commercial Code B.E. 2565 (No. 23)—which Tilleke & Gibbins wrote about last month as the law was poised for enactment—was published in the Government Gazette, completing a lengthy process that had been under scrutiny for over two years. The act is expected to come into effect on February 6, 2023 (i.e., 90 days after the date of publication). New M&A Option The new amendments contain a number of important changes, but perhaps the most notable is the introduction of a new type of business combination. The Civil and Commercial Code (CCC) previously only allowed “amalgamation,” which is a consolidation of two or more companies resulting in the formation of a new entity, with all the amalgamating companies being dissolved. The amended CCC provides more options by introducing “merger” as another possible type of business combination. A merger occurs when two or more companies merge and one of the companies continues to exist while the others companies are dissolved. Like the newly created company in an amalgamation, the surviving entity in a merger assumes the property, liabilities, rights, obligations and responsibilities of all the dissolved entities. Some important considerations for the merger process (which also apply to amalgamations) are specified in the amended CCC as follows: Purchase of shares from dissenting shareholders. The amended CCC allows minority shareholders who disagree with the merger (or amalgamation) to sell their shares to the other existing shareholders at the agreed price. Alternatively, the price may be determined by an appointed valuer if the parties cannot reach an agreement on the purchase price. If the share purchase does not occur within 14 days of the offer date, the shareholder who rejects the offer will become a shareholder of the surviving (or newly created) company after the merger (or amalgamation).

Lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam have contributed to the new Multilaw Global Checklist for Monitoring Staff Data, which compiles essential information on regulations related to collection of data on employees. Such collection of data is an increasingly important concern for employers and entrepreneurs as the world pays closer attention to diversity, equality, and antidiscrimination in the workplace. The checklist contains fundamental information for each jurisdiction on legal considerations pertaining to employment diversity surveys and what can and cannot be asked. The table-style list is global in scope, with a separate line for each jurisdiction. The jurisdictional entries are grouped by region, allowing the reader to quickly compare how various countries treat different issues in each part of the world. In each column is a common question about how employers can monitor staff data in full compliance with the law, covering issues such as: Requesting data from employees; Type and format of data captured; Data storage and access; Retention of data; Intra-group cross-border data transfers; and Specific considerations for each jurisdiction. Multilaw, of which Tilleke & Gibbins is a member, is a global network of carefully selected, independent law firms consisting of over 10,000 commercial lawyers in more than 100 countries, able to provide expert legal advice in complex environments around the globe. The full checklist is available for free on the Multilaw website.

On October 31, 2022, the Department of Trade in Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce announced that payments for importation at the border are to be made via bank transaction. This announcement comes into force with Import/Export Newsletter No. 10/2022, dated October 31, 2022, issued by the Department of Trade, with the purpose of implementing a systematic payment system for import and export at the border, in accordance with a suggestion made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international financial watchdog. (This follows the recent news that the FATF has blacklisted Myanmar.) This requirement means that only bank transactions will be accepted for import payments in the border trade. Initially, this system will be applied to trade at the Myanmar-Thailand border only. The new requirement to pay for imports only via bank transaction states that export earnings and other types of foreign currency earnings (including salary and income remitted by Myanmar workers overseas) will be allowed to be used for imports. Importers are required to make the payments for import goods—using these earnings—via their banks. That is, Importers operating in the border trade must have foreign currency earnings received through official banking channels and must make import payments abroad through official banking channels using those earnings. In contrast to previous practices, they are unable to use other sources of income and are not able to make other payment arrangements that do not involve bank transactions. The procedures for importation at the Myanmar-Thailand border are as follows: Companies applying to the Department of Trade for an import license must produce credit advice and original bank statements that prove the receipt of export earnings or other earnings into their bank account. The Department of Trade will scrutinize the reported export earnings or other earnings, and approve the import license for an amount not exceeding the bank balance. For

Background Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act 2019 (‘PDPA’) is the country’s first unified data privacy legislation for personal data protection. Coming at a time when people around the world are increasingly aware of the risks and negative consequences of their personal data being compromised, the PDPA seeks to align with international standards, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (‘GDPR’). Prior to the enactment of the PDPA, privacy rights were recognised in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand. Beyond this, the handling of personal data was governed by specific regulations for a handful of sectors, such as telecommunications, financial institutions, securities, and life sciences. The PDPA was announced in the Royal Gazette of the Kingdom of Thailand on 27 May 2019, with an exemption for the enforcement of its requirements in relation to the collection, use, disclosure, and transfer (‘process’ or ‘processing’) of personal data, as well as its provisions on data subjects rights. After some delays caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, the PDPA finally came fully into force on 1 June 2022. Unlike most legislation in Thailand, the PDPA has an extraterritorial aspect whereby data controllers and data processors outside Thailand may be subject to the PDPA if the processing activities they undertake fall under the criteria prescribed in the PDPA. The basics The PDPA defines personal data as any data pertaining to a living natural person that enables the identification of that person, whether directly or indirectly, such as phone number, address, email address, or anything else that might enable the data subject’s identification. The PDPA applies to personal data in any form, whether digital or otherwise. The PDPA introduces two main roles relating to the handling of others’ personal data: the data controller and the data processor. A data controller is a

On October 21, 2022, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Myanmar to the list of high-risk jurisdictions having significant deficiencies to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation. The FATF is an international financial watchdog that aims to impede global money laundering and terrorist financing. It is a policymaking body that monitors implementation of FATF Recommendations and FATF Standards and is not binding as a supervisory authority for financial institutions. Myanmar will remain on the list of countries subject to a call for action until the country has implemented an action plan that: demonstrates an improved understanding of money laundering risks in key areas; demonstrates that onsite and offsite inspections are risk-based, and hundi (a type of informal remittance instrument for transferring money) operators are registered and supervised; demonstrates enhanced use of financial intelligence in law enforcement authorities’ investigations, and increasing operational analysis and dissemination by Myanmar’s Financial Intelligence Unit; ensures that money laundering is investigated and prosecuted in line with risks; demonstrates investigation of transnational money laundering cases with international cooperation; demonstrates an increase in the freezing, seizure, and confiscation of criminal proceeds, instrumentalities, and property of equivalent value; manages seized assets to preserve the value of seized goods until confiscation; and demonstrates implementation of targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation financing. Enhanced Customer Due Diligence Unlike other blacklisted countries, Myanmar is not applicable to countermeasures. Instead, the financial institutions of members and nonmember states of the FATF are urged to conduct “enhanced customer due diligence (CDD) measures” to mitigate the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing from Myanmar. Examples of these enhanced CDD measures to be applied to certain higher-risk activities include: Obtaining additional identifying information about the customer (available through public databases or internet sources) and regularly updating the identifying information or data of the customer and beneficial owner; Verifying the customer’s source of funds