The Remaining Problems after the Amendment of the Thai Competition Law 2017

Abstract

Thailand has implemented the competition law since 1999 however, none of anti-monopoly measure has come into effect through the existence of this competition law. A new competition law has just been introduced in 2017 in order to improve problems and limitations of the old competition law. The amendment of the new competition law would better maintain market competition in many aspects. However, many remaining problems are still noticed and the new law might inadequately prevent abusive behavior of the huge firm in dominating market. First of all, the independency of competition authority still becomes a doubt while the politicians still held the power to select and appoint the competition committee. Secondly, one of the anti-monopoly measure is to ban an excessive market share of a company that tends to lead a dominant position of the company in the market. In the new law, the competition authority could impose a certain limit of market share in a vulnerable trading market or service. In fact, the competition authority has never collected and disclosed the market information to the public. The market information is required under the new law in order to detect the trend when an oligopoly or monopoly happens to which type of market or service and who is becoming the dominant. The recommendation from this article is to promote more independency of the competition authority and the ease of access and comprehensive market database is needed. Even under the new law, the case study of anti-monopoly practice has never been implemented. This limits an opportunity to learn the effect of competition law enforcement in Thailand. The experience and lessons from the other countries might be needed in the study of competition enforcement.