In this biweekly Asia-Pacific Regulatory Spotlight feature, S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a roundup of significant recent regulatory events in the region.
TOP NEWS
* China on March 13 announced an overhaul of its governmental structure, revealing plans to form a state radio and television administration directly under the State Council, the country's cabinet. The existing regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, will be abolished.
* The Australian defense department banned staff and serving personnel from installing Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s social media and messaging app WeChat on their work phones amid concerns of Chinese espionage, The Australian Financial Review reported March 11.
* China plans to grant speedy approvals to tech companies seeking domestic initial public offerings, Global Times reported March 4, citing Chinese media reports.
JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA
* The Japan Fair Trade Commission raided the local unit of Amazon.com Inc. on suspicion that the e-commerce retailer was violating antitrust regulations, Reuters reported March 15, citing Amazon Japan KK.
* Apple Inc.'s Apple Korea Ltd. denied all allegations in response to a collective lawsuit filed by South Korea's Citizen United for Consumer Sovereignty for slowing down old iPhones, Money Today reported March 6.
CHINA
* Two international sports media agencies applied to the High Court in Hong Kong to liquidate Hong Kong Sports Industrial Development, formerly LeTV Sports Culture Develop (Hong Kong) Co., the sports streaming arm of LeEco Group, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported March 13.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-owned Youku is suing Beijing ByteDance Technology's Toutiao and video platform Yuncheng Sunshine media for distributing the film "Wolf Warriors 2," for which Youku has exclusive online distribution rights, TechNode reported March 9.
INDIA
* Sri Lanka lifted its ban on Facebook Inc. a week after blocking access to the social media network due to some communal violence instigated by Facebook posts, Reuters reported March 15.
* India's Bombay High Court ordered the liquidation of sports broadcaster Nimbus Communications Ltd. over a six-year-old lawsuit by Union Bank of India, Mint reported March 12.
* India's National Company Law Tribunal, or NCLT, approved the proposed merger of Bharti Airtel Ltd. with Telenor India, Mint reported March 8.
* NCLT accepted Aircel Cellular Ltd.'s bankruptcy petition, The Economic Times of India reported March 8.
* An arbitration court stopped Reliance Communications Ltd. from selling or transferring its assets without the permission of the court, stalling the company's planned sale of a majority of its wireless assets to Reliance Jio, the Press Trust of India reported March 6.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Singapore started a landmark public hearing on how to fight fake news, Reuters reported March 14.
* The board of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission disagreed with the ruling of the Central Administrative Court to have the regulator return the 1.5 billion baht bank guarantee statement or an equivalent sum to Thai TV Co. Ltd., Matichon reported March 14.
* Tencent-owned WeChat obtained the license to operate as a third-party payment services provider in Malaysia, Antara News reported March 11.
* Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Informatics confirmed that it blocked Tumblr Inc. after failing to respond to the ministry's request to remove pornographic content in its platform, Detik reported March 6.
AUSTRALIA
* The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched an investigation into Seven West Media Ltd.'s moves to trigger a transfer of Ten Network Holdings Ltd.'s share in TX Australia Pty. Ltd., a digital broadcast joint venture owned by Australian TV networks Seven, Ten and Nine Entertainment Co., The Australian reported March 12.
