Thailand Readies Far-Reaching Draft Royal Decree to Regulate Digital Platforms

On July 15, 2021, Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) announced a public hearing for their draft royal decree to regulate digital platforms (particularly e-commerce and e-service platforms) that provide services to people in Thailand. The draft royal decree is to be issued under the country’s Electronic Transactions Act B.E. 2544 (2001) and will be of particular concern to digital platform operators, which are defined as operators of intermediary digital platforms that provide a connection space for platform users to offer goods, services, or intangible property via a computer network, regardless of whether a contract is made on the digital platform.

The key elements of the current draft royal decree are as follows:

• Extraterritorial scope. Operators of digital platforms located outside Thailand may be subject to the royal decree if the platform is…