Baker McKenzie, Bangkok Japan Advisory Group

The Trade Competition Commission recently published draft notifications, which are to become supplementary regulations to the Trade Competition Act, B.E. 2560 (2017), pursuant to sections 17(2) and 17(3) of the Act which authorizes the Commission to issue subordinated legislation to implement the Act and impose guidelines on businesses to maintain free and fair competition. An online public hearing on the draft notifications has been held since 24 May 2018, and will be closed on 22 June 2018.

Following the enactment of the Emergency Decree on the Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561  (A.D. 2018) and the Emergency Decree on the Amendment of the Revenue Code (No. 19) B.E. 2561 (A.D. 2018), which became effective on 14 May 2018, the Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission held a public hearing on the draft of related sub-regulations to be issued under the Digital Asset Businesses Decree on 16 – 30 May 2018. These sub-regulations are expected to be officially issued within June 2018.

On 17 May 2018, the Department of Business Development (“DBD“), the Ministry of Commerce, published two clarifications on board of directors meetings for public limited companies after consultation with the Office of the Council of State.

Following on from our recent alert, the Act for the Eastern Special Development Zone (commonly called the Eastern Economic Corridor or “EEC”) was published in the Royal Gazette on 14 May 2018 and took effect on 15 May 2018.

As discussed in our previous client alert, the recently amended Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Aliens B.E. 2560 (2017) requires employers who have already employed foreigners with valid work permits before 28 March 2018 to notify a work permit official of the foreigners’ names, nationalities and nature of work employed within 60 days from the effective date of the Amended Decree or by 26 May 2018. The details of the notification method have now been issued.

On 18 April 2018, the Customs Department publicly launched the “One Stop Services for Voluntary Disclosure Program: OS-VDP” to develop a better relationship with the business operators (e.g., importers and exporters), to promote a good image of the department, and to facilitate duty collection of unintentional underpayment of duty and tax.

The Ministry of Commerce has issued a ministerial regulation prescribing new rates of official fees for registration of partnerships and private limited companies, taking into account recommendation from the World Bank on the rates of official fees for corporate registration. The new regulation became effective from 21 April 2018 onwards.

Following the enactment of the Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of
Aliens B.E. 2560 (2017) back in late June 2017 as mentioned in our previous alert, there has been much confusion prompting a number of foreign workers to leave Thailand due to fears of harsh penalties against offenders under the Decree.

The European Union has recently adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, a new piece of legislation intended to protect the privacy of data subjects in the EU, which will be effective from 25 May 2018.

Following the public hearing of the Personal Data Protection Bill in January 2018, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has amended the draft again and published a revised version of the draft Personal Data Protection Bill in early April 2018.