On 14 February 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of Singapore delivered the long-awaited 2023 Budget Statement, which sought to showcase the country’s effort moving forward in “building our capabilities and seizing new opportunities in a new era of global development”. Of note, amongst the myriad of policies and changes introduced during...
Category: Legal Update
Use of Private Email Addresses for Work Purposes
The use of private email addresses for work purposes is not an uncommon practice – a recent survey by Avatier showed that nearly 40% of respondents use personal email accounts for work-related emails. Such trends have understandably caused much concern for employers, who fear the business and legal risks of such behaviours. For instance, it...
The Fiduciary Principle: Being a Servant of Two Masters
A review of the key learning points from the case of Tan Teck Kee v Ratan Kumar Rai and others [2022] SGCA 62 The fiduciary duties of directors in companies – now commonly referred to as the no-conflict and no-profit rule – find their roots in the precept that “no man can serve two masters.”...
Recent Developments affecting Cross-Border Transactions
As 2022 draws to a close, we look at some recent developments affecting cross-border transactions. New determinants in cross-border M&A Contrary to popular belief, COVID-19 does not always hamper deal-making. Whilst cross-border M&A saw a dry spell in the early days of the pandemic, now, more than two years after the World Health Organisation first...
Upcoming changes to the PDPA: Introducing Data Portability
Passed in Parliament on 2 November 2020, the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Bill introduced a slew of amendments and new concepts to the existing framework under the Personal Data Protection Act (“PDPA”). One of the new concepts is that of data portability under the proposed new Part VIB of the PDPA. Although this Part VIB...
PK Wong & Nair LLC to enter Joint Law Venture with Mayer Brown in Singapore
Singapore, 25th October 2022 – PK Wong & Nair LLC (“PK Wong & Nair”) announced today that it will enter into a Joint Law Venture (“JLV”) with global law firm Mayer Brown, after receiving formal approval from the Singapore Legal Services Regulatory Authority. The JLV, to be known as Mayer Brown PK Wong & Nair...
Enhanced Penalties under the Personal Data Protection Act (“PDPA”)
On 2 November 2020, the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament and set into motion the introduction of several key changes to the Personal Data Protection Act (“PDPA”). Coming into effect on 1 February 2021, some of the amendments to the PDPA included the increase of the cap for financial penalties for...
Foreign Manpower Regulatory Audits by MOM
The Ministry of Manpower’s Foreign Manpower enforcement divisions are stepping up their audit inspections of private sector employers. Prior to inspections, you may (or may not) receive some fairly innocuous correspondence from the Ministry of Manpower such as a survey form. The Foreign Manpower enforcement division checks whether foreign to local dependency ratios are being...
Upcoming Changes to the Eligibility for Employment Pass
Earlier in the year, during the Singapore Budget Statement 2022 on 18 February, it was announced by the Minister of Finance that there will be several changes introduced to our foreign worker policy framework to better allow businesses to access a diverse pool of manpower. Notably, as part of these changes, there will be an...
The long arm of the Law reaches into the Metaverse
Introduction In a landmark decision, the General Division of the High Court of Singapore issued a proprietary injunction and a worldwide Mareva injunction against unidentified persons to prevent the dissipation of cryptocurrency assets that were claimed to have been stolen. It also ordered two centralised cryptocurrency exchanges to disclose information on the accounts credited with...