Key Insights on Draft New Legislation Regulating Digital Platforms (Thailand)

2. Key Obligations for Service Providers

The service providers of digital platforms which will be regulated under the Draft Act are classified as follows:

A. The providers of digital intermediary service

Digital intermediary service means the provision of services over a computer network, the internet or telecommunication networks, acting as intermediaries between senders and receivers of information which are mere conduit service (i.e. data transmission services), caching (i.e. temporary data system services), hosting (i.e. data storage services) and other services which may be announced under the subordinate regulation. The digital intermediary service providers have several obligations under the Draft Act, for example, notifying the users of rights and duties under relevant laws related to sale and purchase, service or any transaction through digital platform service, publicizing terms and conditions of service to users. Nevertheless, the service providers are not obligated to examine the data which they receive, transmit or store in order to detect any illegal activities.

Most importantly, the providers of digital intermediary service shall not be held accountable for any illegal actions arising from the data transmitted or stored through their services, provided that, for instance, such digital intermediary service do not initiate transmission of any illegal data, comply with general standard of caching service, or do not know or could not know, even with caution, that such stored data is illegal.

B. The providers of digital platform service

Under the Draft Act, digital platform service is the provision of [hosting (data storage services)] that facilitates the matching of different types of users to enable electronic transactions or interactions, whether service fees are charged or not. Digital platform services in Thailand are, for example, e-commerce marketplace, flight and hotel booking applications, ride-hailing applications, search engines, food delivery platforms.

The obligations for the platform service operators are, among others, to inform users of rights and duties under relevant laws regarding the sale and purchase of goods or services, to disclose to users which content is advertising and distinguish advertising content from non-advertising content, to provide channel for complaints or to report information concerning illegal activities.

Additionally, the Draft Act further prescribes characteristics of Very Large Online Platform Services (“VLOPs”) and these VLOPs are subject to extra obligations. To fall under VLOPs, the operator must have either one of the following characteristics:

• having annual revenue from digital platform service in Thailand exceeding THB 1 billion;
• having more than 6 million users in Thailand per month; or
• posing high risks to economy and public security.

For VLOPs located outside Thailand, if they provide service to users in Thailand and meet the above characteristics, they shall also be subject to notification of duties under the Draft Act.

The main duties of VLOPs are, for instance,

• to notify its information to Electronic Transactions Development Agency (“ETDA”), e.g. name of individual or company that owns such online platform, company registration number, contact information which at least includes a contact of high-level executive for legal compliance, name of platform service, value of transactions on such platform, revenue gained from platform service, etc.;
• to provide mechanism for tracking users who sell goods or provide commercial service through the platform;
• to suspend the provision of service to users who commit serious offence or an offence which may affect politics, economy or social security immediately;
• to prepare an annual transparency report which at least includes information regarding, among others, statistics of violation activities, examination and management method for illegal data which have been received, transmitted, stored or processed through the platform, and publicize such to public via its platform at all times.

C. The gatekeepers

The gatekeeper refers to the providers of core platform services, e.g. online search engines, online social networking services, online intermediation services, video-sharing services, web browsers, cloud computing services, for digital platform who have the authority to control access to services provided by others e.g. to grant or deny users entry to other platforms. Operators who will be considered as gatekeepers must have the characteristics and fall under the criteria as in the table below.

Among others, the gatekeepers are obliged to:

• not restrict business users from selling products or providing services through other platforms;
• allow business users to freely communicate, offer products or provide services to end users without additional charge;
• not act, directly or indirectly, to obstruct or restrict the right of the users in notifying, reporting or filing complaints to government agencies or court in connection with legal violation;
• disclose information regarding advertising fee, commissions, discounts and pricing formulas to advertiser or publisher without charge;
• allow end users to uninstall or change default setting for application;
• not prioritize its own products or services unfairly in search results or ranking.

3. Governing Authorities

The main governing authority which will oversee the application of this Draft Act in terms of protection of users is the Committee which is established under the Draft Act and it will operate under ETDA. Additionally, the Draft Act contains several provisions concerning trade competition and grants the Trade Competition Commission of Thailand (“TCCT”) certain authority thereunder e.g. consideration of business size of the gatekeeper shall be based on connecting policy and management control under the criteria of TCCT, ETDA shall provide information of VLOPs providing core platform service to TCCT, TCCT must cooperate with ETDA to achieve the purposes of this Draft Act. Furthermore, the Committee will consist of 2 directors who are designated by the TCCT. In terms of fair competition, TCCT will mainly oversee this matter, particularly for operators designated as gatekeepers.

4. Conclusion

The Draft Act has just undergone public hearing from 15 January 2025 to 15 February 2025. It is expected that the enactment of the Draft Act will build trust in users to use digital platforms and will increase more online transactions, even though the compliance burden for operators and digital service providers would increase. Furthermore, it aims to reduce illegal activities and contents on digital platforms. The operators of digital platforms in Thailand should start preparing to meet the compliance obligations under the Draft Act.