With its beautiful beaches, scenic mountains, and bustling cities, Thailand has long enjoyed a reputation as a popular tourist destination. At the same time, the country has also become an attractive hotspot for foreign nationals wishing to buy property

The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) has issued notifications applicable to life and non-life insurance companies, which are intended to emphasize the importance of internal risk management in insurance companies. The notifications were published in the Government Gazette  on September 1, 2017, and will take effect 180 days later on February 28, 2018.The notifications contain several requirements that life and non-life insurance companies must comply with:

On October 2, 2017, Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights submitted its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol, making Indonesia the 100th member state under the treaty. As a result, brand owners will be able to seek protection under the Madrid Protocol from January 2, 2018, onwards.

On August 25, the Customs Department of Hai Phong issued two decisions sanctioning a Vietnamese company for the import of trademark-infringing products and the import of prohibited goods, ending more than two months of customs clearance suspension proceedings. The decisions are groundbreaking because of customs’ pioneering standpoint in dealing with refurbished goods.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Thailand’s anti-corruption agency, has issued a new resource document called “Guidelines on Appropriate Internal Control Measures for Juristic Persons to Prevent Bribery of State Officials, Foreign Public Officials, and Agents of Public International Organizations” (“guidelines”).

What can one parent do if the other parent kidnaps their child and flees to Thailand? The response to this question before 2013 would have been, “nothing, except try to negotiate for the child’s return.” Even though Thailand is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“Hague Abduction Convention”), there were no clear domestic mechanisms or legal framework in place to deal with abduction by custodial parents prior to 2013.

Thailand is in the process of reforming laws related to payment systems and services, as well as consolidating several overlapping laws that regulate electronic money businesses, with the National Legislative Assembly approving the new Payment Systems Act in August 2017. The new draft of the bill is awaiting royal assent and is expected to be published in the Government Gazette within this year, becoming effective 180 days after its publication.

Medicines can save lives only if they are safe, efficacious, of good quality, and affordable. The use of unsafe, substandard, ineffective, and counterfeit drugs can be harmful to the health of the users and the public. Governments have an obligation to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of the drugs available to the public by regulating the manufacturing and distribution of drugs and by exercising legal power to control the proliferation of unsafe counterfeit medicines.