Draft laws

On January 19, 2015, China’s foreign investment regulatory authority Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) released a draft of new Foreign Investment Law (“Draft Law”).  This Draft Law is expected to come into force in the next couple of months overhauling the 25-year-old regulatory framework of inbound foreign investment in China ( See Unofficial English Translation of the Draft Law by AmCham China ).Case-by-Case Approval is AbandonedUnder the existing legal framework governing foreign investment, each project or entity is subject to approval by MOFCOM or its local counterparts regardless of the investment sector.  In the Draft Law, only those foreign investment projects that fall under the negative list are subject to the governmental approval requirement.[1]  For those projects or entities that are not on the negative list, foreign investors are allowed to bypass MOFCOM approval and directly register with the respective … [Read more...] about China Foreign Investment Draft Law: What You Should Know

The Cyberspace Administration of China has released a draft law that would impose an annual security assessment on firms exporting data out of China.The proposed legislation would apply to any business which transfers more than 1000 gigabytes of data, or which affects more than 500,000 users, and is the latest of several safeguards announced in recent times against threats such as hacking and terrorism.Under the draft law, economic, technological or scientific data whose transfer would post a threat to public or security interests would be banned, and there would be extra scrutiny of sensitive geographic data.Businesses would also have to obtain the consent of users before transmitting it overseas.The draft law follows another passed in November 2016 which formalised a range of controls over firms that handle data in industries the Chinese government labels critical to national interests. … [Read more...] about Draft Law Proposes Security Assessment of Data Exported Out of China

By Mathieu Rosemain and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) – France’s National Assembly approved a draft bill on Friday which would require social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to remove any hateful content within 24 hours. President Emmanuel Macron wants to make France a leader in regulating U.S. tech giants and containing the spread of illicit content and false information on the most-used platforms. “What is not tolerated on the street should not be tolerated on the internet,” said Laetitia Avia, a member of Macron’s majority at the National Assembly and author of a recent report on hate speech told reporters before the vote. Facebook has come under intense scrutiny in recent years over hate speech, especially after a gunman killed 51 people in New Zealand in March and streamed the attack live. The massacre prompted the country’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern to initiate a so-called “Christchurch Call,” named after the city … [Read more...] about French lawmakers pass draft law targeting online hate speech

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has invited public responses to a draft law to prevent illegal fishing and depletion of coastal fish stocks, as current legislation is inadequate for sustainable development of the industry, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. China is struggling to remedy damage done by overdevelopment of its rivers and lakes, with fish stocks suffering not only from overfishing, but also industrial pollution and habitat disruptions caused by dams and water diversions. It has imposed tougher curbs on fishing in rivers, lakes and coastal areas, but some species, such as the Chinese sturgeon, remain on the brink of extinction. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is seeking responses from the public by Sept. 28 to the draft published on Wednesday, it said on its website. Illegal and unsustainable fishing practices, such as the use of explosives or electrocution, are still a serious problem in China, it added. The ministry called for a more … [Read more...] about China drafts law to combat illegal fishing, safeguard stocks

On 4 February 2015, the German Ministry of Justice published a new draft law specifically aimed to combat corruption in the healthcare sector. Key element of the draft legislation will be a newly defined criminal offence that will be inserted as a new Section 299a of the German Criminal Code (StGB). This new criminal offence sanctions active and passive bribery of a wide range of healthcare professionals – not only of medical doctors.The envisioned new § 299a StGB would significantly sharpen the German anti-corruption laws as far as interactions between life sciences companies with medical doctors and other healthcare professionals are concerned. The criminal culpability would apply to both the healthcare professional that accepts a bribe and the company representative that pays a bribe.The new § 299a StGB is crafted very broadly and appears like a “catch-all” rule. It sanctions the improper influencing of a healthcare professional’s decision-making on … [Read more...] about Germany Headed to Stricter Criminal Laws Against “Corruption In The Healthcare Sector”