Clifford Chance

In case you haven't heard, Netflix's latest global sensation is a South Korean show called Squid Game. The horror-thriller series tells the story of 456 people in deep financial trouble competing in children's games for a $38.5 million prize. Those eliminated from the games are killed, obviously.

Squid Game is now on track to become the biggest show in Netflix's history in any language. It also "broke the internet". SK Broadband, a South Korean internet service provider, recently filed a counterclaim against Netflix claiming extra costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work, which in turn resulted from an increasing number of viewers of popular Korean shows including D.P. and Squid Game. The counterclaim is the latest in a long-running dispute between SK Broadband and Netflix on who should pay for increased internet traffic, with the Seoul Central District Court ruling against Netflix in June this year.

The dispute is happening against the background of South Korea's "Netflix Law". The law, passed in 2020, requires foreign content providers such as Netflix to take measures to supply stable internet services to users in Korea. It remains to be seen if this means that Netflix has to bear network costs.

Netflix is not the only tech giant who lent its name to a South Korean law. Last month, we reported on South Korea's "anti-Google law". Google has come under more pressure in the country, receiving a USD 177 million antitrust fine from the Korean Fair Trade Commission for the use of "anti-fragmentation agreements" to prevent smartphone manufacturers from modifying the Android operating system. In another antitrust story, the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act in the US was advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with strong bipartisan support.

In other news, this month has also seen developments in the digital financial system. Seychelles' top officials announced that the country will become entirely cashless by 2023. The Money Authority of Singapore released plans to link the city state's real time payments system with that of India and Malaysia.

In crypto-currency, Blockstream Mining, a blockchain company, announced plans to develop green bitcoin mining with investment bank Macquarie. The UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority signed an agreement to support crypto-asset trading in the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority free trade zone. Meanwhile, Binance, the well-known crypto-exchange, came under pressure in a number of jurisdictions, mostly recently in Singapore where it was placed on an "Investor Alert List".

On data protection, in the US, a group of nine senators wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission encouraging them to develop rules to protect consumer privacy. Saudi Arabia issued its first data protection law. In Africa, Sierra Leone said that it will establish a Data Protection Policy, Act and Regulation, and Nigeria mulls the implementation of a new national cybersecurity policy.

The EU and US representatives met for the first time in the new Trade and Tech Council. In a statement issued afterwards, the Council will take forward a number of tech issues including the regulation of artificial intelligence and the screening of online platforms. Also in Europe, the European Commission proposed a universal phone charger. Whether this spells the end of Apple's unique charger remains to be seen.

Africa | APAC | Americas | Europe | Middle East

Africa

Seychelles' financial system to be entirely digital by 2023

Seychelles is set to become a cashless economy. On 2 September, its top officials announced that the country's financial system will be almost entirely digitised by 2023, in line with the Central Bank of the Seychelles' (CBS) technological integration strategy, which was approved last month. According to the strategy, the financial system is expected to be fully digitalised in two years, eliminating the use of physical cash. The government has outlined three pillars to implement the strategy:

(i) the establishment of proper digital infrastructure, including proper payment systems and better and affordable access to the internet;

(ii) amendments to the laws, such as the national payment systems act, the financial institutions' act and the cybercrimes bill; and

(iii) the establishment of a fintech ecosystem, including fintech services financing and skills development to encourage fintech supply and demand.

Draft Data Protection Policy, Act and Regulation in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone's Director General of the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA), Mohamed Mubashir Massaquoi, announced on 30 August 2021 that the Cabinet has approved the establishment of a Data Protection Policy, Act and Regulation for Sierra Leone. A working group has been mandated to reviews drafts of these documents, with final drafts to be presented by the end of September 2021 subject to nationwide consultations.

Office of the National Security Advisor mulls implementation of new national cybersecurity policy in Nigeria

The National Security Advisor (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd), convened the 7th meeting of the Cybercrime Advisory Council (CAC) on 13 September to discuss the implementation of the new National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2021 (NCPS).

The meeting considered emerging risks in cyberspace and discussed strategies to facilitate and strengthen ongoing initiatives towards the implementation of the NCPS.

As part of the move to achieve these strategic objectives, the office of the National Security Adviser is to commence a 3-months Cyber Security Sensitisation outreach across seven highly susceptible sectors of the nation’s economy from September to December 2021: these sectors include Telecommunications, Defence and Security, Education, Finance and Capital Markets, Energy, Professional Organisations, the Private Sector and Judiciary.

APAC

Green bitcoin mining in Australia

Bitcoin mining is "power hungry". It requires a huge amount of electricity usually generated by fossil fuels, creating a carbon footprint similar to the emissions levels of Jordan and Sri Lanka. To tackle this issue, Blockstream Mining, a blockchain company, said on 9 September that it is partnering with major investment bank Macquarie to develop bitcoin mining facilities that use renewable energy.

Their first pilot project, according to Blockstream's blog post, will be based in North America and includes Macquarie investing in Blockstream's mining facilities and exploring opportunities to provide renewable energy to power the mining process.

South Korea imposed antitrust fines on Google

In our September edition, we reported on the new "anti-Google law" passed by South Korea. Google has unfortunately come under new pressure in the country - the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Korean's antitrust regulator, imposed a fine of 207 billion won (around USD 177 million) on Google. The KFTC said that Google had abused its market dominance in the Android operating system market, and restricted competition. Google had asked the manufacturers to sign an "anti-fragmentation agreement" ("AFA"), which prohibits smartphone manufacturers (like Samsung) from modifying the operating system (known as "Android forks"), in exchange for the manufacturers obtaining access to the Google play store and early access to the operating system.

In addition to the fine, KFTC also banned Google from the practice of requiring manufacturers to sign the AFA. Google said that it intends to appeal the decision.

Singapore's PayNow to link with India's UPI and Malaysia's DuitNow

Sending money to another country is usually a confusing process rife with hidden fees. However, sending money between Singapore, India, and Malaysia is likely to get much easier.

On 14 September, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India announced that they plan to link their real-time payment systems, Singapore's PayNow and India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by July 2022. The linkage will allow money to be transferred from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment address.

On 27 September, the MAS and Bank Negara Malaysia announced that they plan to link PayNow and Malaysia's real time payment system, DuitNow. The first phase of the linkage plan will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022, and will allow transfers between Singapore and Malaysia using just a mobile number. In its announcement, the MAS said that it would explore the opportunity to incorporate distributed ledger and smart contract technologies in the wholesale cross border payment space.

Remittances between Singapore and Malaysia reached SGD 1.3 billion (USD 959 million) in 2020, and those between Singapore and India amounted to more than USD 1 billion annually. The linkages present an exciting development in a space that is ripe for disruption.

Binance runs into resistance from Singapore regulator

The MAS placed Binance.com, the global cryptocurrency exchange operator, on an "Investor Alert List", warning that the exchange is not licensed or authorised by the MAS to provide payment services to Singapore residents. As a result, Binance announced that it would cease offering Singapore dollar payment options and Singapore dollar trading pairs from 10 September, and that the app will be removed from the Singapore iOS and Google Play stores. Binance has encouraged users to switch from Binance.com, the global platform, to Binance.sg, its local platform which is operating under an exemption granted by the MAS.

Binance has come under pressure in various other jurisdictions, including the UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Italy where regulators have taken enforcement action against Binance or said that Binance is not authorised to carry out some activities.

AMERICAS

Legislative Updates: The State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act

On September 23rd, the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act (S.1787) was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee "with strong bipartisan support," according to Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). The bill, introduced by Senator Lee and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), would allow state Attorneys General to remain in the venue of their choosing when bringing a federal antitrust claim. "This bill would simply strengthen effective enforcement of our antitrust laws," according to Senator Klobuchar.

This legislative development came three days after a bipartisan group of 32 Attorneys General wrote Congress urging them to pass a range of antitrust reform bills. Led by Attorneys General Phil Weiser of Colorado, Douglas Peterson of Nebraska, Letitia James of New York, and Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee, the letter applauds Congress for taking up six bills that would help modernize federal antitrust laws. The six bills, Ending Platform Monopolies Act, American Choice and Innovation Online Act, Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act, Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, and State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act, were passed out of the House Judiciary Committee during a marathon session over two days in June. The letter also urges Congress "to include in the legislation a provision confirming that the states are sovereigns that stand on equal footing with federal enforcers under federal antitrust law, including with regard to the timing of challenging anticompetitive mergers and other practices." The State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act has companion legislation in the House of Representatives. The House bill (H.R. 3460) was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee 34-7. It is unknown when either of the bills will be voted on by the full House of Representatives or Senate.

In related news, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights held a hearing on September 21st titled "Big Data, Big Questions: Implications for Competition and Consumers." Senator Klobuchar, who organized the hearing, started the hearing by saying, "When big data inhibits competition – by allowing those who have it to block access to markets for those who do not – we need to step in and fix it. This means enforcing our existing antitrust laws to their fullest extent to protect competition. It means updating our antitrust laws for the modern economy, just as we’ve done centuries past...Well, the time has long passed for today’s tech world." While data hoarding was discussed, the hearing took a turn away from antitrust when several Senators from both sides of the aisle began grilling Facebook's vice president after a Wall Street Journal report found that Instagram was harmful to many younger users, particularly teenage girls.

FTC Privacy Proposals

On September 20th, a group of Senators wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) encouraging them to begin a rulemaking process to protect consumer privacy. Signed by nine Senators, the letter "urge[s] the Commission to undertake a rulemaking process with the goal of protecting consumer data; the rulemaking should consider strong protections for the data of members of marginalized communities, prohibitions on certain practices (such as the exploitative targeting of children and teens), opt-in consent rules on use of personal data, and global opt-out standards."

This privacy push comes a week after the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to give the FTC $1 billion to set up a bureau focused on fighting identity theft and improving data security and privacy. This proposal would fund the new bureau for ten years.

Europe

EU-US Trade and Tech Council meets for first time in Pittsburgh

On 29 September 2021, EU and US representatives met for the first time in the new Trade and Tech Council (TTC). There were no concrete outcomes but a joint statement issued shortly afterwards listed the topics the TTC will take forward. These include the regulation of artificial intelligence, easing the semiconductor supply shortage, coordinating investment screening and cooperating on the regulation of online platforms. Ten working groups have been set up to collect input from stakeholders, academics and civil society.

The TTC will meet again next year, most likely under the French Council Presidency in the first half of 2022, although a date has not yet been set.

European Commission proposes a universal phone charger

On 23 September 2021, the European Commission proposed to establish a common charger through a revision of the Radio Equipment Directive. The Commission has long viewed the prevalence of different, incompatible chargers as a source of significant electronic waste and consumer inconvenience.

Under the proposal, USB-C will become standard for all smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld videogame consoles. In addition, the Commission has proposed to unbundle the sale of chargers from the sale of electronic devices.

Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice-President, said: "We gave industry plenty of time to come up with their own solutions, now time is ripe for legislative action for a common charger."

The Commission proposal will now go to the European Parliament and Council for adoption under the ordinary legislative procedure (formerly co-decision) and, once adopted, there will be a 24-month transition period to give industry time to adapt, meaning that the rules will not come into force before 2024 at the earliest.

Middle East

UAE's digital economy

While cryptocurrency exchanges have come under pressure elsewhere, in the UAE the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) signed an agreement with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTCA) to support crypto-asset trading in DWTCA's free trade zone. The SCA agreed to handle the regulatory oversight of the issuance, offering, listing and trading of crypto-assets, as well overseeing, monitoring and inspecting entities operating within the free trade zone, as the DWTCA aims to expand its services and become a free trade zone of choice.

Saudi Arabia's new data protection law

In our September edition, we reported on the UAE's proposed new data protection law. Other jurisdictions in the Middle East are also catching up. Saudi Arabia issued its first comprehensive data protection law, The Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), which was published in the Official Gazette on 24 September and set to take effect from 23 March 2022.

The Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) will supervise the implementation of the PDPL, and the supervisory authority may be transferred to the National Data Management Office after two years.

The PDPL applies to the processing of data in Saudi Arabia, as well as the processing of the personal data of a Saudi resident that takes place outside Saudi Arabia. While similar to the GDPR in some respects, the PDPL prohibits the transfer of personal data outside the Kingdom unless under specific circumstances. It also applies to the data of a deceased person, and requires breach notifications to be made immediately.