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Executive Yuan passed draft amendments to "Three Anti-Scam Laws"
Executive Yuan passed draft amendments to "Three Anti-Scam Laws"
Given that there have been numerous scams recently, on 13 April 2023, the Executive Yuan passed the draft amendments to "Three Anti-Scam Laws", including the Personal Data Protection Act ("PDPA"), the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act ("SITC Act"), and the Anti-Money Laundering Act ("AML Act"), and will submit the same to the Legislative Yuan for its review and deliberation soon, hoping to fight scams effectively from various approaches. Below is a summary of the draft amendments to "Three Anti-Scam Laws":
1. Draft Amendments to the PDPA
To solve the enforcement difficulties encountered due to the decentralized approach of management and urge non-government agencies to strengthen personal data protection, the draft amendments to the PDPA plan to (i) establish an independent supervisory authority dedicated to personal data protection matters (i.e., the Personal Data Protection Commission; "PDPC"); and (ii) raise the penalties for data security breaches. The PDPC will integrate those enforcement powers spread among local government authorities and central competent authorities in charge of the relevant industries under the PDPA and take over the responsibility of interpreting the PDPA from the National Development Council. On the other hand, if there is a data breach, the PDPC may impose an administrative fine ranging from NT$20,000 to NT$2,000,000 immediately, without needing to designate a time limit for the non-government agency to rectify the breach first. If the non-government agency fails to rectify the breach within such time limit or the breach is material, the aforesaid administrative fine can be raised to between NT$100,000 and NT$10,000,000.
2. Draft Amendments to the SITC Act
To prevent online investment scams, in addition to stipulating prohibited types of advertisements for non-securities investment trust/consulting enterprises, the draft amendments to the STIC Act plan to establish a real-name and take-down mechanism for online investment advertisements, requiring internet platform providers to (i) specify advertisers’ and sponsors’ names and other relevant information when publishing or broadcasting online investment advertisements; and (ii) remove, restrict access to, cease broadcasting, or adopt other necessary measures when becoming aware of any illegal online investment advertisements; otherwise, the internet platform providers shall be jointly liable to victims who suffer from fraud.
3. Draft Amendments to the AML Act
Given that scam gangs often collect the accounts opened/applied by others with financial institutions, virtual currency platforms, or third-party payment service providers ("Dummy Accounts"), to block the sources of Dummy Accounts, the draft amendments to the AML Act (i) stipulate a crime of "collecting accounts without a legitimate cause" (violators may be subject to a sentence of up to 5 years’ imprisonment and a criminal fine of up to NT$4,000,000), which will have extra-application over Taiwan citizens outside of Taiwan; and (ii) prohibit any person from handing over or providing Dummy Accounts to another person(s) without a legitimate cause (violators may be subject to a sentence of up to 3 years’ imprisonment and a criminal fine of up to NT$1,000,000).
Should you have any questions regarding the draft amendments to "Three Anti-Scam Laws" or require any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact any member of our Digital, TMT and Data Privacy Practice Group.