MACAU SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Pedro Cortés and Luís Rôlo, Lektou
Advertising over radio, television and any other audiovisual broadcasts is subject to stamp duty of 2% on the cost of the advertising. Digital advertising carried out by the advertiser is not taxable. However, a local advertising service provider hosting advertising for third parties is subject to 2% stamp duty on the price charged for such hosting services. The hosting service provider should charge and collect the stamp duty from the advertiser and hand over the pro - ceeds to the Financial Services Bureau. 1.4 Consumer Protection The provision of digital goods and services is subject to the general framework of the Con - sumer Rights and Interests Protection Law (Law No 9/2021). Law 17/92/M (Standard Contractual Clauses) applies to almost every contract in the TMT field and companies must pay attention to the roll of forbidden clauses, as well as clauses deemed void. Administrative Regulation No 24/2002 (Provi - sion of internet services), besides stipulating that contracts between providers and users must abide by the stipulations of said Administrative Regulation, also stipulates that users are only bound by the terms, conditions and prices that were expressly communicated by the provider. The services provided must not depend on the acceptance, by the user, of other services, and deceptive advertising is forbidden. Similar provisions apply, under Administrative Regula - tion No 41/2011 (Public Telecommunications Networks), to operators of Public Telecommu - nications Networks. Additionally, this Adminis - trative Regulation stipulates that the operators are liable for damages sustained by users, by
reason of unjustified termination of the provision of services. The rules for handling consumer complaints and consumer dispute resolution are the same as for general cases. Consumers may lodge com - plaints with the Consumer Council. The Macao Consumer Mediation and Arbitration Centre handles the mediation and arbitration of con - sumer disputes arising from the supply of goods or services. In the case of telecommunications, if the consumer requests to submit the dispute to the Centre, the arbitration becomes compulsory for the provider. Judicial remedies are available under the general provisions of law. TMT companies should establish and imple - ment a standard procedure for handling con - sumer complaints. This should be able to assess quickly whether the consumer has reasonable grounds for their complaint, and recommend appropriate corrective action. Factors to consider include the potential repu - tational damage arising from public disclosure of consumer disputes, particularly in grey-area cases. 1.5 The Role of Blockchain in the Digital Economy Distributed Ledger Technology and Cryptocur - rency are not regulated in Macau. Cryptocur - rency is not recognised as legal tender and the Monetary Authority has repeatedly issued warn - ings against promoters and traders of cryptocur - rencies. Banks were specifically instructed not to engage or participate in any ICOs. Law No 10/2023 provides for currency in digi - tal format, which is known as “pataca digital”
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