Nearly 100 partners of Tookdee convenience stores, operated by TD Tawandang Co under Carabao Group, have filed complaints with the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) to investigate whether their contracts with TD Tawandang are legitimate.
Visanu Vongsinsirikul, secretary-general of the OTCC, said the office started receiving complaints from the partners last month and had already sent officials to various provinces in the Northeast, including Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, Surin, Sri Sa Ket, Yasothon, Nong Khai, and Bueng Kan to collect preliminary information from the partners.
More partners filed additional complaints yesterday, also submitting documents.
The partners said their businesses had been negatively affected by unfair practices, such as a large number of missing products from inventory without explanation, and being fined for lost products without receiving any reimbursement.
Mr Visanu said the office is gathering information to determine the facts and circumstances related to the complaints under the Trade Competition Act.
The office expects to submit the case to the Trade Competition Board for consideration by next week, and pledged to expedite the investigation.
He said the main point of contention is products disappearing from the stock of TD Tawandang without explanation, causing many partners to become indebted to the company. This requires further verification, including claims of failure to refund deposits of 200,000 baht, said Mr Visanu.
If any legal violations are discovered, criminal and administrative penalties can be issued.
The administrative penalty is a fine of up to 10% of the income for the year of the offence, while the criminal penalty is imprisonment for a maximum of two years.
Imprisonment can be used as a substitute for a fine.
Previously Sathien Sathientham, chairman of TD Tawandang, said the company commenced Tookdee operations in 2018 with the idea of building a community-based retail network.
The business model is a partnership between the company and the shop operators, in which the company invests in all kinds of products and equipment for the shop, such as product shelves, refrigerators and automatic cash registers, with a total value of almost 1 million baht per shop.
Shop operators are required to deliver the revenue to the company from the previous day. If they fail to do so for more than three days, the company will stop delivering products.
If the payment is overdue for more than four days, the company will send a warning letter to pay within three days.
If there is still no payment, the company will immediately terminate the contract and arrange an appointment to move all the equipment and products out of the shop.
TD Tawandang did not respond to requests for comment.