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Nasdaq news
In November 2022 China's market regulator proposed amendments to a law on unfair competition, making provisions for fines ranging as high as a 5% share of a firm's annual revenue to punish such practices by internet companies.
The changes, open for public comment until Dec. 22, are part of a two-year-old crackdown on formerly freewheeling giant internet firms, which China has punished for activities from monopolistic behavior to exploiting consumers.
The amendments state that to protect consumers, operators would be barred from using algorithms to give users "unreasonably different treatment or unreasonable restrictions", by analyzing user preferences and their trading habits, or not use data, technology or any other capital advantage to engage in unfair competition .
Another new rule, prevents a business in an advantageous position from forcing a counter-party to sign exclusive agreements. Also, such businesses should not block external links or services from their platforms without a reason.
Operators infringing such provisions can face fines ranging from 1% to 5% of annual revenue, with legal representatives subject to fines of 100,000 yuan to 1 million yuan ($14,008-$140,080).
For more information:
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/china-plans-stiff-fines-in-tech-related-changes-to-competition-law
Tesa News
On the 1 of November 2022 ISA, headed by Anat Gueta, published their proposal for open debate: An amendment to the guidelines regarding diversity of directorships of publicly traded corporations and hedge funds. The purpose of the amendment is to increase the percentage of women in director positions and to make this information accessible to the public.
In the past year, we can see that many corporations put a lot of thought and effort into making conscionable investments (ESG- Environmental, Social, Governance). The issue of equality and gender diversity is also a part of this. According to the OECD, in the year 2021 in 60% of the 50 countries in the OECD address the issue of gender diversity in director positions either by setting a quota or by publicly releasing the information regarding current gender diversity.
In line with current worldwide trends and due to the Ministry of Justice's suggestion to update the current law regarding gender diversity in public companies, the ISA propose the following requirements for publicly traded companies and hedge fund managers:
1. Statistical discovery: A public corporation will be required to publish statistical information regarding the gender diversity of its board of directors.
2. Appointment discovery: A public corporation and hedge fund manager will be required to announce the gender of any new director so long as the director agrees to publicize this.
3. Human resource policy discovery: A public corporation and hedge fund manager will be required to publish any human resource policy (if one exists) regarding gender diversity. They will be required to publish how the current board of directors is working to implement said policy.
