The Trade Descriptions Act 2011 (“TDA”) was amended on 11 January 2022 by way of the Trade Descriptions (Amendment) Act 2021. Our write up on this can be read here.  Among the amendments made was the amendment of the existing power of the Minister to make regulations under section 69(2)(b) of the TDA to prohibit, restrict, regulate or control the use of any expression or indication used in the course of trade or business to include any “statement” as well.
 
Pursuant to this section 69, the Trade Descriptions (Prohibition of Use of Statement, Expression or Indication) (Oil Palm Product and Palm Oil Goods) Regulations 2022 [P.U.(A) 55/2022] were issued and came into operation on 15 March 2022.
 
The new regulations prohibit a person, in the course of any trade or business, or in any advertisement, from using any statement, expression or indication:  

Such statement, indication or expression (including representation or conduct) that are prohibited includes the phrases “does not contain palm oil” and “free from palm oil”. 
 
The penalty for the offence of contravening the above is a fine not exceeding RM 250,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years.
 
These new regulations are countermeasures adopted by the Government to protect palm oil and oil palm products, which are major export commodities of Malaysia, against anti-palm oil messages or negative descriptions concerning them.
 
Alert prepared by Nicole Oh Jia Yi (Associate) of the Intellectual Property Division of Skrine.