The trade of dual-use (civil and military) goods, services and technologies (SCOMET items) are closely scrutinized to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands. As a consequence of this, businesses who legitimately deal with such items are also required to pass this scrutiny. We provide an overview of the regulations governing theRead more
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Background Australia’s plain packaging saga has a 10 year-long history starting with Australia’s announcement of mandatory plain packaging for tobacco products in 2010.[1] Thereafter, in 2011, Australia enacted the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act (TPP Act),[2] requiring plain packaging for tobacco products and prohibiting the use of logo, imagery, colours, text, borders, embellishment or embossment ofRead more
Background In recent years, proponents of data globalization have been at loggerheads with the proponents of data localization. The former have been promoting free and open flow of data across borders, while the latter have been adopting measures curtailing cross-border data flow citing privacy and security concerns. These data localization measures broadly restrict or prohibitRead more
As we have discussed in our earlier piece, here, in 1998, the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) established a comprehensive work programme on electronic commerce (e-commerce) (hereafter, WorkProgramme) to examine all trade-related issues concerning e-commerce.[1] The Work Programme, apart from allocating four WTO bodies to examine specific issues concerning e-commerce,[2] allowed theRead more
On the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, 2019, 76 Member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), decided to formally initiate negotiations towards a plurilateral legal framework regulating electronic commerce (e-commerce). This decision was taken after more than two decades of oscillation between dialogue and deadlock is the e-commerce discourseRead more
This article argues that India’s draft National E-Commerce Policy will harm its startups. An edited version of this article was first published in the Economic Times on Saturday, 16 March 2019. The version published by the Economic Times is also available online, here. About two months from now, the US government will start to imposeRead more