Labor
1.Amendment to Regulations of Sexual Harassment Prevention
On 6 March 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the amendment to the Regulations of Sexual Harassment Prevention. We summarize below:
(1)To provide the types of sexual harassment, which include the harassing language, behavior, pursuit, and peeking, etc.
(2)To provide that the government agencies (entities), military units, school, institutions, or employers shall review periodically the overall safety of space and facilities of public space.
(3)To provide the measures that the entities may adopt when being aware of the sexual harassment incident happening in their public space.
(4)To provide the contents of trainings that the entitles shall provide to the employers and management personnel.
Reported by: David Tsai / Paul Hsu
2.Amendment to Enforcement Rules of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act
On 6 March 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act. We summarize below:
(1)When receiving the sexual harassment incident which shall be subject to the Gender Equity Education Act or Gender Equity in Employment Act, the recipient unit shall transfer the case to the competent authority and inform the parties within 20 days.
(2)To provide the unjust differentiated treatments that the entities shall not adopt against the persons who attend the sexual harassment investigation, which include the termination, demotion, decrease in salary or impairment to their statutory rights and interests without justifiable reasons.
(3)To provide the matters to be stated in the complaint letter of sexual harassment and the regulations of correction.
(4)To provide the matters to which are recommended to be stated in the investigation report and the suggestions to address the case
Reported by: David Tsai / Paul Hsu
Electronic Signature
3.Draft Amendment to Electronic Signatures Act
The Executive Yuan passed the draft amendments to the Electronic Signatures Act (“Act”) on 29 February 2024. We summarize below:
(1)To specify that digital signature is a type of electronic signature.
(2)To specify that the legal effect of electronic record and electronic signature cannot be denied solely because of their electronic form.
(3)Unless the counterparty consents to the use of electronic form, the counterparty shall be given an opportunity to refuse before using electronic form, and be notified that it is presumed consent if not refused.
(4)The digital signature issued by the government permitted certification service provider is presumed being personally signed.
(5)The administrative authority can only exclude the application of this Act through the laws, and the announcement of excluding the application of the Act made by the government agency prior to its amendment shall cease to take effect three (3) years after the implementation of this amendment.
(6)The matters to be considered for the competent authority to permit foreign certification service provider includes technical docking cooperation in addition to the principles of reciprocity under equivalent security requirements.
Reported by: Stacy Lo/ Zoe Chen
M&A
4.Ruling related to Paragraph 14, Article 27 of Merger and Acquisition Act
On 8 March 2024, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) issued a ruling that for the purpose of merger and acquisition to acquire the shares of a public company for more than 10% of the total issued and outstanding shares of the company, in terms of the items to be declared by the acquiror for share acquisition, from 10 May 2024, the declaration forms related to the “Regulations Governing the Declaration of Acquisition of Shares in Accordance with Article 43-1, Paragraph 1 of the Securities and Exchange Act” applied mutatis mutandis under the current ruling shall no longer be applicable..
Reported by: Angela Lin
Banking
5.Approval Period for Banks providing Financial Products and Services Applicable to High-Asset Customers
On 7 March 2024, the FSC issued a press release to explain the approval period for banks providing financial products and services applicable to high-asset customers. Currently, if the banks are approved for continuing the business for the first time, the approval letter still specifies that the approval period shall be three years, and therefore the banks shall apply for continuing the business for the second time before the approval period expires. Considering that the banks will be conducting such business for more than five and a half year when applying for continuing the business for the second time and accumulating enough experience, FSC will ease the approval period of the second time, which means that there will be no need for the banks to apply for continuing the business afterwards.
Reported by: Stacy Lo / Henry Ku
Trusts
6.Amendment to Principles for Trust Industry to Conduct Telemarketing
On 11 March 2024, the Trust Business Association of the Republic of China announced the amendment to the “Principles for Trust Industry to Conduct Telemarketing“. We summarize below:
(1)To add that, when engaging in telemarketing, the trust industry shall comply with the Personal Data Protection Act, financial industry related laws and regulations, and the regulations of the competent authorities.
(2)To specify that, the trust industry shall “take the initiative” in informing the call recipient of the matters that the trust industry shall inform of, and to add that if it is the first time that the trust industry makes a call to the call recipient, the trust industry shall first explain to the call recipient the source of the telephone number from which it has obtained the telephone number, so as to facilitate the call recipient’s understanding of the matter.
(3)When conducting telemarketing calls, the trust industry shall ask the recipient whether he/she accepts telemarketing calls so that the recipient can immediately indicate. If the recipient expresses his/her intention to stop telemarketing, the trust industry, after confirming, shall handle the internal operation of stopping the use of his/her information for telemarketing in accordance with the regulations.
(4)To add that, the trust industry is required to provide existing customers with multiple channels to express their request to stop utilizing their personal information for telemarketing, and the trust industry is required to continue to disclose information about the channels through which customers can express their request to stop telemarketing in a clear, understandable, and easy-to-obtain manner.
(5)To specify the handling time for the trust industry to accept the discontinuance of telemarketing.
(6)Personnel newly engaging in telemarketing shall accept pre-employment and on-the-job training to ensure the quality of telemarketing.
(7)The trust industry shall set up a specialized unit to handle related consultation and complaint cases, establish handling procedures, conduct regular reviews, and conduct timely reviews to improve the handling procedures of customer complaint cases in order to reduce the number of customer disputes.
Reported by: Stacy Lo / Julia Kuo
Securities
7.Article 18 of Regulations Governing Responsible Persons and Associated Persons of Securities Firms
On 6 March 2024, the FSC announced the amendment to Article 37 of the Regulations Governing Securities Firms and Article 18 of the Regulations Governing Responsible Persons and Associated Persons of Securities Firms to stipulate that the securities firm may, in accordance with the tripartite agreement signed among the securities firm, its client and the securities investment consulting enterprises, accept and execute the automated rebalancing trades without being subject to the restriction that the securities firms, responsible persons and associated persons of securities firms are not allowed to accept from any person other than the client himself/herself or an agent without a power of attorney for subscription, trade, or settlement.
The FSC also announced a ruling on 12 March to stipulate that securities firm shall establish relevant internal control systems for handling the above-mentioned business. The mandatory provisions of the tripartite agreement will be separately promulgated by the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association and the Taiwan Securities Association.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Amy Su
8.Draft Amendments to Article 23 of Regulations Governing Securities Firms Accepting Orders to Trade Foreign Securities
On 12 March 2024, the FSC announced the draft amendment to Article 23 of “Regulations Governing Securities Firms Accepting Orders to Trade Foreign Securities.” Considering the practical needs of securities firms, it is further permitted that a securities firms may also engage the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation as the depositary of foreign securities purchased.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Winnie Su
| Editors: Mike Lu (Partner) Stacy Lo (Partner) Jeffrey Liu (Partner) Kang-Shen Liu (Partner) David Tsai (Partner) Angela Lin (Partner) Paul Hsu (Partner) | Counselors: Echo Yeh Sue Su Jolene Wang (Lexcel Partners IP) |