Draft amendments to the Trade Competition Act are due to be considered by the cabinet by mid-November in a move aimed at ensuring fair competition among businesses and curbing monopolies.
Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, who chaired yesterday's first meeting of the Trade Competition Board, said the amendments would cover enforcement of state enterprises that run businesses that compete with the private sector, an upgrade of the Office of Thai Trade Competition Commission to an independent body and enhanced penalties and powers of that commission in filing lawsuits against violators.
"The Trade Competition Act needs speedy amendments, as we expect business and trade competition will become more intensified next year," she said.
"More importantly, the Act, which has been in effect for 15 years, has never been used for a single successful prosecution."
The meeting also agreed to improve the guidelines on market domination. It is proposed that a business entity will be considered to dominate the market if it holds a market share of more than 30% and had sales of more than 500 million baht in the preceding year.
However, competition conditions also need to take into account factors such as market structure, which includes the number of players, positioning, concentration and access obstacles, access to manufacturing bases and distribution channels, natural resources and infrastructure, investment and networking, Ms Apiradi said.
The Act currently defines market domination as a market share in the previous year of at least 50% and annual sales of at least 1 billion baht.
Ms Apiradi said the revision was necessary because the country's product and service market was considered relatively small.
However, those dominating the market will face legal action only if they use unfair trade practices and obviously obstruct other players.
Ms Apiradi said the board also agreed to set up a panel to hold public hearings and amend the regime covering mergers and acquisitions to make businesses more competitive under the Asean Economic Community.