THAILAND

Looking Back: 2020 and Gazing Into: 2021

Looking Back: 2020

One of the most significant changes and developments in 2020 would be the introduction of several laws to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. These include, among others, those empowering the Bangkok and provincial governors to order the closure of places posing risk of transmission of the virus, imposing a curfew during specific hours, introducing financial and tax measures to support businesses and individuals, relaxing requirements on holding meetings and submitting annual reports for the corporate sector, and extending the deadline for land and building tax payments.

In the area of dispute resolution, civil mediation before litigation was introduced to provide more options for resolving civil disputes, which would in turn help reduce the number of cases in the Court.

In recognition of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned May 2020 implementation of the Personal Data Protection Act ("PDPA") was delayed for certain types of data controllers for a one-year period, and standards for maintaining the  security of personal data to be adopted by such data controllers during this period were issued.

In the area of competition law, there were substantial inroads made into the enforcement of the 2017 Trade Competition Act and the issuance of decisions and subordinate laws to clarify its intended scope and application. For example, the Office of the Trade Competition Commission ("OTCC") issued an important decision conditionally approving the acquisition of the local retail business of Tesco by the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), which was seen as the first major test of the 2017 Trade Competition Act. A new notification was also issued to clarify unfair business practices in respect of online food delivery platforms and business operators, an issue on which OTCC had received numerous complaints since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following are certain other key developments in 2020:

• amendment to the market dominance test under competition law;

• amendment to the Revenue Code on the issue of collecting value-added tax on foreign e-services;

• notifications setting out the criteria for the classification of the utilisation of land and buildings as residential or agricultural, for the purposes of determining tax rates; and

• Thailand becoming the 137th signatory state of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. 

Gazing Into: 2021

Due to the recent increase in the number of COVID-19 infections in December 2020, the Government announced the latest extension of the Emergency Decree to 28 February 2021, and that subsidiary laws issued thereunder to be effective until further notice. Additional measures were implemented to control the movement of foreign workers within the country so as to mitigate the spread of the virus. The Government has also reintroduced measures to support businesses and individuals, such as the reduction of contributions to the Social Security Office ("SSO"), and compensation from SSO payable to employees who are absent from work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Major developments in the first quarter of 2021 would likely continue to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic controls and support.

All of the provisions of the PDPA will become fully effective on 1 June 2021 after the postponement in 2020 of its coming into operation. A number of subsidiary laws are expected to be passed to set out further details of the requirements under the PDPA.

In addition, the following key trends and/or developments are to be noted:

• adoption of civil mediation before litigation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism;

• increased enforcement of the 2017 Trade Competition Act; and

• ongoing development of 5G after the roll-out in 2020.

Full Report

Click on the link below for the full report which provides summaries of the key legal and case law developments related to the above areas:

• Regional Round-Up 2020: Thailand

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