Amid interest of e-Commerce operators, the concept of Digital Platform Economy Bill (the “Bill”) in Thailand was inspired by the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the EU in order to regulate digital intermediaries and platform services for enhancement of consumers protection and encouragement of fair competition. The Bill, firstly, initiated to the Thai Cabinet for its approval on the proposed principles of the Bill in May 2022 and the latest, the Bill was published for public hearing starting on 15 January to 16 February 2025.
The key points of the Draft Digital Platform Economy Act are as follows:
(1) For the purpose of consumer protection
1.1 The Bill proposes 5 categories of business operators to be regulated as listed below:
(a) Digital Intermediary Service Providers covering business operators who provide any of the below-listed services:
1.1.1 Mere Conduit (Data Transmission Service): Provision of data transmission services in a communication network or provision of access rights to an electronic communication network;
1.1.2 Caching (Temporary Data Storage Service): Provision of automatic transmission and storage of data in a temporary database for the purpose of forwarding data from one person to another through an electronic system or network; and
1.1.3 Hosting (Data Storage Service): Provision of permanent data storage at the request of the user.
(b) Digital Platform Providers who providing the online platforms and meeting the criteria set forth below:
1.1.4 Online Platform Service (General): Provision of storage of data and facilitation of matching of different types of users to enable transactions or interactions between them, regardless of whether a service fee is charged or not. Nonetheless, the online platform service provider may offer other services to facilitate these transactions or interactions; and
1.1.5 Very Large Online Platform Service: Provision of Online Platform Service as aforementioned in clause d) plus meeting either of the following criteria:
- having annual revenue in Thailand exceeds THB 1 billion;
- having monthly active users exceed 6 million; or
- being classified as high-risk to economic or social stability the credibility and acceptance of the electronic data system, or the potential impact and damage to the public, as determined by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA).
1.2 Definitely, stringency of duties and responsibilities of among different types of and Digital Platform Providers could be varied depending on the level of risk impacts to the public. The main duties and responsibilities that would potentially be imposed to the Digital Intermediary Service Providers and Digital Platform Providers can be summarized as follows:
(a) Digital Intermediary Service Providers are generally obliged to appoint an officer to co-ordinate with ETDA in case illegal activities occurs via their platforms. Nonetheless, a safe harbor clause is available for the Digital Intermediary Service Providers to be discharged from applicable liabilities provided that specified conditions are satisfied; and
(b) For the duties of Digital Platform Providers, the proposed duties and responsibilities cover:
- Notifying rights and duties of users;
- Providing compliant channels;
- Providing advertising disclosure;
- Announcing Terms and Conditions of services;
- Reporting required data to ETDA;
- Implementing mechanisms to track business users selling goods or services;
- Suspending services for users involved in serious legal violations;
- Warning users involved in non-serious legal violations or breach of services agreement;
- Publishing annual transparency reports;
- Providing prior notice before changes to terms of service;
- Creating plans and measures to handle crisis situations;
- Conducting annual risk assessments and implementing risk management measures;
- Ensuring regular security tests for system stability;
- Appointing officers to ensure compliance with laws and coordinate with relevant government agencies;
- Arranging for independent external auditors to assess operations; and
- Carrying out any other duties as determined and announced by the Digital Platform Economy Commission.
(2) For the purpose of fair competition
2.1 The Bill proposes to regulate a business operator known as Gatekeeper, who provides core platform services including online search engines, online social networking services, online intermediation services, VDO-sharing services, number-independent interpersonal communication services, operating systems, web browsers, virtual assistants, cloud computing services, online advertising services and any other specified services, with the following characteristics:
- having annual core service revenue before deducting expenses, arising from services provision, exceeding THB 7 billion;
- being a gateway for business users to reach the number of end users more than 15 million per month and having business users reaching the certain number to be specified annually; and
- consistently meeting the above criteria for the past three years.
2.2 Responsibilities of Gatekeepers that could be imposed:
- Not setting Price or Service Conditions (Parity Clause);
- Allowing free communication between business users and end consumers (Anti-Steering Provision)
- Providing choices of authentication or payment services (Ancillary Service);
- Not requiring users for prior registration with other platforms (Tying);
- Notifying the purpose of Use of Personal Data (Opt-in Obligation);
- Listen to feedback from users for at least 15 days before changing or modifying the terms and conditions of service and submitting the feedback results and changes to terms and conditions to the Trade Competition Committee (TCC); and
- Any other responsibilities specified by the TCC.
Non-compliance to the proposed Bill is subject to civil fines and criminal penalties to business operators violating the law.
For the next step, the Bill will be proposed to the Cabinet for approval of its details by the parliament.
Latest Updates on the Digital Platform Economy Bill_Bangkok Global Law