The Digital Markets Act (EU Regulation 2022/1925) came into force on 1 November 2022, with the aim of promoting fair business practices in the digital industry in Europe. While the DMA itself may have no direct implication for Indonesia, the KPPU – Indonesia’s competition authority – often refers to developments and thought-leadership on enforcement from other prominent jurisdictions, including the EU. Digital businesses operating in Indonesia may use the DMA as a navigation tool, and clients may find the practical risk mitigation tips useful.
Indonesia’s Consumer Protection Law generally takes a light-handed approach to protection of consumer interests. It generally seeks to lay out the principles for protecting consumers’ interests, leaving detailed regulations to the regulators and to industry self-governance. However, it does list specific types of clauses that are prohibited. Anyone who includes prohibited clauses in an agreement would be subject to the threat of criminal penalty of up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to IDR 2 billion (around USD 130,000). Given these risks, it is crucial for any consumer-facing business to understand what types of clauses are actually prohibited and how it can ensure that it is compliant with these prohibitions.
Detecting rigged bids once dominated the workload of KPPU, and while that may no longer be the case, the number of bid-rigging cases being handled by the KPPU at any given time remains relatively high. Recent enforcement cases have focused on construction and public procurement projects. Through these cases, KPPU has proven that it is adept in the area of technology – scrutinizing metadata and IP addresses of defendants to uncover evidence of collusion. Colluding to rig bids is an Article 22 violation under the Indonesian Competition Law, for which KPPU may impose a fine of IDR 1 billion or more.
Companies with effective Antitrust & Competition Compliance Programs may benefit from more lenient sanctions if KPPU finds an infringement in the future. KPPU Regulation No. 1 of 2022 on ACCP was issued earlier this year to provide further guidance for the implementation of Article 15(a) of Government Regulation No. 44 of 2021. To receive the compliance credit, it is important to ensure your ACCP meets the requirements of the KPPU Regulation and then secure the KPPU certification (a stipulation that will be valid for five years, and is renewable).
The draft of the Indonesian Personal Data Protection Law was approved to become law by the Indonesian Parliament (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia) on 20 September 2022. With this approval, we are nearing the end of the process of an ambitious piece of legislation, which took several years to get approval. For several years, Indonesia has only relied on various diverse regulations that contain privacy provisions without one comprehensive umbrella law on personal data protection.
On 30 August 2022, the Indonesian competition authority (“KPPU”) issued Circular No. 9/KPPU/SE/VIII/2022, clarifying that it will accept apostilled foreign official documents.
Since Indonesia acceded to the Apostille Convention in 2021, The KPPU’s position on this has been unclear, particularly with regard to how powers of attorney issued abroad should be processed. With this Circular, it the authority has now confirmed that documents issued in a member state of the Apostille Convention will only need to be notarized and apostilled to be accepted by KPPU.
KPPU, Indonesia’s competition authority, is taking an increasingly aggressive stance, as seen in its latest decision on partnerships between a large corporation and small and micro enterprises. In that case, a maximum fine of IDR 10 billion (approx. USD 670,000) was imposed on a large corporation that was viewed by KPPU as controlling the SMEs it partners with. This recent development could indicate the start of a more rigorous approach to enforcement by KPPU against SME partnerships.
On 30 August 2022, the Indonesian House of Representatives agreed to pass a law ratifying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest regional free trade agreement outside the World Trade Organization — involving 10 ASEAN countries and five non-ASEAN countries, i.e., China, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea. With the passing of this law, which still requires promulgation by the President, RCEP is set to come into force for Indonesia, possibly before the end of the year.
In the spirit of the ASEAN Central Bank Governors’ Meeting in April 2022 (which is one of Indonesia’s G20 Presidency events) and Indonesia’s Payment System 2025 Visions that were introduced in May 2019, Bank Indonesia has launched cooperation with Bank of Thailand that enables consumers and merchants in both countries to make and accept instant cross-border QR payments for goods and services.
The Government has begun the process of “re-doing” the Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation as was mandated by the Constitutional Court on 25 November 2021. It has issued an amendment to the law governing the legislative process to accommodate the omnibus law method used for this law. The Government must now involve the public in a meaningful way in discussing the substance of the law that will replace Law No. 11 of 2020, while still completing the whole process by the 25 November 2023 deadline. In the meantime, the amendment itself is still subject to constitutional challenges.