On March 3, Varapa Aurat, head of Tilleke & Gibbins’ tax team in Bangkok, will deliver a webinar entitled “Tax 101: What E-commerce Startups Need to Know.” The webinar, cohosted by Tilleke & Gibbins and True Digital Park—one of Southeast Asia’s largest tech and startup hubs, will give Thai small business owners an opportunity understand local tax regulations to help them ensure their operations are compliant. During the hour-long session, Varapa will provide an analysis of key tax laws in Thailand that Thai companies should be aware of, including an overview of common pitfalls for small business owners. She will also lead a discussion on whether recent amendments to the Revenue Code to impose VAT on e-services will have an impact on local operators. The webinar will be broadcast via Facebook Live on Wednesday, March 3, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. In order to register for this session, which will be presented in Thai, please visit the event page on Tilleke & Gibbins’ Facebook page. Should you have any questions or require any further information, please send an email to [email protected].

A recent article on the progress of the business rehabilitation of Thai Airways quotes John Frangos, partner and deputy director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution department, on various aspects of the developing case. The article, titled “Lessors strike deals with Thai Airways,” was written by airline industry business information provider Cirium and shared through FlightGlobal, the world’s leading publisher of news, analysis, and other content for the aviation industry. The article reports that the majority of the aircraft lessors who have exposure to Thai Airways are in the final stages of signing agreements with the beleaguered airline to govern management of their aircraft in the business restructuring process. In discussing his own experience representing various creditors in the process, John explains that the airline may be adopting a blanket policy of objecting to requests for debt repayment. “It appears to be a clear strategy of the plan preparer to object to many debt-repayment applications as a way to try to reduce the overall debt amount,” he is quoted as saying. The article also notes that there is still considerable uncertainty surrounding the ongoing business rehabilitation. Part of this is related to the future makeup of the carrier’s reduced fleet, but the most pressing issue is whether Thai Airways will submit its rehabilitation plan by the March 2, 2021, deadline. If this deadline is not met, one possibility is that the airline would have to file for dissolution. However, John considers that even if they miss the deadline, other workarounds will be explored. “If they don’t finish and they do legitimately need more time, then at least for me personally I can’t see the whole process unravelling because they can’t submit by the deadline,” he says. To read the full article, please visit the FlightGlobal website.

As the implementation of Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act looms, Tilleke & Gibbins joins forces with Bird & Bird Data Privacy Solutions to look at the data protection officer requirement, and what lessons can be learned from the European experience with the GDPR.

For the second consecutive year, Tilleke & Gibbins is proud to serve as the exclusive law firm sponsor of Chula LegalTech, a program focused on innovation in the legal sector at one of Thailand’s top universities. Bringing together students from across Chulalongkorn University’s faculties of law, business, computer science, engineering, and more, the program will engage teams of students in a competition to develop and implement legaltech solutions over the course of the academic year. The participating students will have the opportunity: