Thailand has released the set of principles that will form the official draft Platform Economy Act (PEA) for a public hearing period that runs until December 15, 2024. The PEA is likely to be positioned as a general or overarching law for digital intermediary services and digital platform service businesses. In January 2024, an early, unofficial version of the proposed law had been circulated among a limited group of operators in certain industries to get comments for the working group charged with the PEA’s development. Now, however, the proposed principles that will underpin the official draft PEA have been released publicly to gather comments, feedback, and suggestions from any interested stakeholders. The principles of the draft PEA cover two main areas: user protection and fair competition. The key details in these two areas are outlined below. User Protection The main regulator supervising the law’s user protection elements will be the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA). The draft PEA is expected to impose user protection obligations on service providers based on their nature, size, and risk level. The principles set out a three-tiered classification system for service providers that will be covered under the draft PEA, as detailed below, ordered from fewest obligations to most: Intermediary Service Provider: This describes a service provider acting as an intermediary between a sender and recipient of information on a computer network, the internet, or a telecommunications network. Service providers likely to fall under this category include cloud service providers and web hosting providers. Intermediary service providers may be further categorized into the following subtypes: Mere conduit service providers; Caching service providers; Hosting service providers; and Other service providers as prescribed in ministerial regulations. Online Platform: This refers to an intermediary service provider offering data storage services that connect various types of users to

Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Committee has publicized a new draft notification detailing additional duties for specific marketplace digital platform service operators under Section 18(2) of the Royal Decree on Operation of Digital Platform Service Businesses Subject to Prior Notification B.E. 2565 (2022). The draft notification, which is open for public comments until November 30, 2024, aims to provide enhanced protection for users of “specific marketplace platforms” (defined below). Some key points of the draft notification are detailed below. Scope The draft notification applies to “marketplace digital platform services,” which refers to digital platform services that serve as an intermediary for buying or exchanging goods and provide services to facilitate sale transactions, such as providing communication systems (e.g., chat features), shopping carts, delivery arrangements, and supplemental payment processing facilitation. “Specific marketplace platforms” refers to Section 18(2) of the Royal Decree on Digital Platform Services, which covers digital platform services that pose risks to financial and commercial security, the reliability and credibility of data messaging systems, or potential harm to the public, and that have a high level of potential impact based on the criteria for assessing the impact of digital platform service operations. Key Obligations Registration. The draft notification requires the marketplace operators mentioned above to be registered as legal entities in Thailand. Terms and conditions. The draft notification details additional obligations relating to marketplace operators’ terms and conditions: In addition to existing obligations prescribed in the Royal Decree and the relevant subordinate laws, the draft notification emphasizes that the terms and conditions must be in Thai, clear, accessible, and understandable, and may include graphical elements to aid explanation. The terms and conditions must prescribe conditions relating to the sale of products subject to specific standards, such as those restricted under the Food Act, the Drugs Act, and the Industrial Product

Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) issued guidelines for managing advertisements on digital platform services (DPSs) earlier this year. These guidelines aim to prevent fraud, illegal product or service offerings, and inducements to commit illegal acts, and are likely to provide a basis for greater regulation of this issue in the future. Key obligations for DPS business operators under the guidelines are detailed below. Advertiser Screening and Data Collection Verification and collection: Business operators must establish processes for verifying and collecting advertiser data. This includes steps, methods, and required information for advertiser registration. Identity verification: Business operators should follow identity verification requirements for advertiser registration. This may include using identity verification results from other identity providers or conducting their own identity verification processes with a minimum identity assurance level (IAL) of IAL2. Data storage: Advertiser data must be stored in a machine-readable format. Business operators must maintain records for watchlists, blacklists, and whitelists. Prepublication Advertisement Review Review process: Business operators should review advertisements before publication. This review should consider factors such as prohibited or restricted advertisements, required permissions, and avoiding sensitive user data. Postpublication Monitoring Advertisement monitoring: Business operators must monitor published advertisements using automated systems, staff, or contracted personnel. Criteria for prioritizing reviews should be established. Reporting channels: Business operators must provide channels for users to report illegal or inappropriate advertisements. Reports must be promptly addressed, prioritizing cases involving intellectual property owners or multiple credible reports. Advertiser account monitoring: Business operators must monitor advertiser accounts. This includes considering factors such as the number of reports/flags received and compliance with service agreements and community standards. For more information on this initiative from the ETDA, or on any aspect related to Thailand’s regulations for DPSs, please contact Athistha (Nop) Chitranukroh at [email protected], Thammapas Chanpanich at [email protected], Pornpan Wichawut at [email protected],

On August 9, 2024, Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) opened a period for public feedback regarding the 2022 Royal Decree on Digital Platforms and its subregulations. To collect this feedback, the ETDA has prepared a 44-question survey on specific attributes of the royal decree and its requirements, covering issues such as the definition of digital platform services (DPSs), types of services that are subject to notification requirements, information that must be submitted annually, and the royal decree’s extraterritorial scope. Business operators that fall within the scope of the royal decree and wish to provide feedback on its effectiveness should prepare and submit the survey online to the ETDA by the end of August 2024. Royal Decree on Digital Platforms Thailand’s Royal Decree on Digital Platforms was published in the Government Gazette on December 22, 2022. It defines a DPS as any service that facilitates or mediates transactions between users through a digital platform, such as e-commerce, food delivery, ride-hailing, online travel agency, online payment provider, or social media platform. The decree requires DPS operators to notify the ETDA before commencing operations, with some limited exemptions. The decree also empowers the ETDA to issue notifications (i.e., subregulations) and guidelines for implementing the decree and to monitor and enforce compliance by DPS operators. The ETDA may impose administrative sanctions, such as warnings, fines, service suspension, or revocation of notification, for any violation of the royal decree or the ETDA’s subregulations. In-scope DPS operators should take this opportunity to provide comments to the ETDA in order to voice their opinions on the practicality of the requirements and support the regulator in shaping the requirements of the royal decree and its subregulations. For more information on this initiative from the ETDA, or on any aspect related to the Royal Decree on Digital