SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin, Drew & Napier LLC
1. Digital Economy 1.1 Key Challenges
The PSA also imposes a stock and flow cap on personal payment accounts issued by MPI licen - sees, to protect customers by limiting potential loss from the customer’s account. Personal pay - ment accounts issued by an MPI are subject to a load capacity (ie, the maximum amount of funds that can be held at any given time) of SGD20,000 and an annual transaction flow cap (ie, the maxi - mum total outflow over a rolling 12-month peri - od) of SGD100,000. E-Commerce E-marketplaces and e-retailers should ensure that they conform with the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003 (CPFTA), which applies where the consumer or supplier is resident in Singapore or where the offer or acceptance relating to the consumer transaction is made in or sent from Singapore. Therefore, in the digital economy where cross-border transactions are the norm, the CPFTA will apply where this nexus to Singapore is established. The CPFTA accords customers rights and pro - hibits sellers from engaging in unfair practices or selling defective goods. If a supplier engages in unfair practices such as making false representa - tions, deceiving consumers or taking advantage of consumers in certain circumstances, the con - sumer may take legal action against them under the CPFTA. In addition, where a good does not conform to the agreement between the parties, the consumer has a right against the supplier to demand repair or replacement of the good at the supplier’s expense or, alternatively, a price reduction or refund. Moreover, in June 2020 the first national stand - ard for e-commerce transactions, Technical Reference 76 (TR 76), was issued by Enter - prise Singapore and the Singapore Standards Council. TR 76 serves as a practical reference
A patchwork of legislation is currently available to regulate the digital economy in Singapore, including in relation to consumer protection, the sale of goods and services, payment services and personal data protection. Digital Payment Solutions Under the Payment Services Act 2019 (PSA), providers of digital payment solutions (such as e-wallet services) may need to apply for either an either a standard payment institution (SPI) licence or a major payment institution (MPI) licence if they offer the following services: • account issuance services that involve issu - ing a payment account, or any service relating to any operation required for operating a pay - ment account; • domestic money transfer services that involve providing a local fund transfer service; • merchant acquisition services that involve accepting and processing payment transac - tions and payment receipts for and on behalf of a merchant; • e-money issuance services that involve the issuance of e-money for persons to make payment transactions; • cross-border money transfer services that involve providing inbound or outbound remit - tance services in Singapore or arranging remittance from one country or territory to another; or • digital payment tokens (DPT) services, on a non-exhaustive basis, that involve buying or selling virtual currency, or providing a platform to allow persons to exchange virtual currency in Singapore.
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