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Pornapa Luengwattanakit

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Pornapa Luengwattanakit currently leads Baker McKenzie’s Corporate & Commercial, Tax, as well as the International Trade, Compliance & Customs practice groups in Thailand. She practices mainly in the areas of corporate restructuring, major projects, mergers and acquisitions and trade competition. Ms. Luengwattanakit joined Baker McKenzie in 1982 and became a partner in 1989.

In our brand new series “Instant Competition”, the Competition team at Baker McKenzie discusses the Thai Trade Competition Act and its impact on business operators across all industries.

In our first episode “Instant Competition Overview: Introduction to Thai Trade Competition Law”, our team discusses competition law and the role of regulator in the competition landscape in Thailand. This is followed by “Instant Competition EP. 2: Thai merger control regulations – what you should know” focusing on merger control regulations under the Thai Trade Competition Act.

This series is the latest installment in our YouTube video chats which feature interesting key legal developments across various areas. This video is in Thai.

Customers and investors are increasingly interested in the ESG initiatives of companies before making a purchase or investment decision. This is the case in Thailand, where we are seeing more companies announce sustainability initiatives, causing government authorities to supportively respond to these efforts. In this two-part article, we will first focus on the sustainability trends in Thailand and the role of Thailand’s Board of Investment with examples of current incentive schemes and privileges that facilitate sustainability-related activities.

Effective from 1 February 2022, the updated post-closing merger notification form requires substantially more information from parties, though the statutory period for submission remains unchanged. The authority’s new guidance on unfair trade practices introduces a de minimis threshold of 10% to the definition of “superior bargaining power”. A draft amendment to the SME Credit Term Guideline proposes changes to the definition of an SME. The TCCT has been conducting a law review and focus-group surveys to assess the efficiency and enforcement of the competition law, the first such mandated assessment since the law came into effect in 2017.

The Trade Competition Commission of Thailand has published a new guideline on offenses relating to unfair trade practices under section 57 of the Trade Competition Act 2017. The New Guideline underwent a public hearing in 2021 and has become effective on 19 February 2022. It replaces the first guideline on unfair trade practices which was issued back in 2018.

The Trade Competition Commission of Thailand published a draft amendment of the Notification of the Trade Competition Commission re: Guideline on Fair Trade Practices relating to Credit Terms with SMEs Offering Goods or Services (or commonly referred to as the SME Credit Term Guideline). This is the first amendment after the guideline became effective in December 2021 and is now open for public hearing.

The legal regime of export and dual use items control and the trade control of items related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Thailand is currently governed by the Trade Control on Weapons of Mass Destruction Related Items Act B.E. 2562 (2019), which came into force on 1 January 2020.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) considerations are growing in importance for companies and businesses globally, so much so that we have now arrived at the point where ESG has become one of the key priorities in boardrooms everywhere. Regulations are emerging, the pressure from stakeholders is increasing, and consumers are becoming more conscious of ESG issues, which is influencing their purchasing decisions as noted recently by the Head of Marketing at a Thai consumer goods company, “Consumers increasingly want to purchase products from organizations that are good at achieving their ESG goals

The Office of the Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) has recently opened a public hearing on the draft new unfair trade practice (section 57) guideline which will replace the current guideline once it becomes effective. The draft new guideline revises certain defined terms and provides more details on acts that may constitute an offense under section 57 of the Competition Act.

The Thai Customs Department has launched a Customs Trader Portal, an online web application that gives business operators a convenient option to register as an importer, exporter, and an operator who conducts customs formalities. This platform, implemented on 1 July 2021 for Thai individuals, is more aligned with the current digital economy. It also provides a third registration option for Thai individuals to register as customs formality operators. Previously, there were only two methods manual and E-customs.