Combatting Corruption with Thailand Competition Law Ploykaew Porananond Chiang Mai University

Historical Overview of Thailand Competition Laws Price Control and Antimonopoly Act Price control of goods and services and monopoly control 1979 Thai Trade Competition Act Financial sector reconstruction 1999 Reformation 2017 Historical Overview of Thailand Competition Laws

Political Context of the Recent enactment National Council for Peace and Order took power since 22 May 2014 National Reform Council Established by virtue of the National Reform Act Tasked with creating plans for reform Issued 37 reform plans; prevention of corruption, access to power/political parties system … monopoly and fair competition Dissolved in 2015 after failing to pass a new Constitution Replaced by National Reform Steering Assembly and then Law Reform Commission of Thailand

The Long Journey of Thailand Competition Law Public consultation 2015 First draft 2016 The National Legislative unanimAssemblyously voted to pass the new bill 24 March 2017 Signed into law 2 July 2017 The Long Journey of Thailand Competition Law

Overview of the new law Wider scope of application State owned enterprise is no longer excluded With the exception of those in the domain of national security, public interest, or infrastructure Similar substantive contents Prohibition of abuse of dominant position, anticompetitive agreements, merger control Change in sanction Abolish universally criminal sanction Reformation of the commission Independent entity

Simple questions Why is the law enacted under the authoritarian regime? How can Thailand competition law be used to help combat corruption? Substantive possibilities Structural limitations

Competition Law and Thailand Military Generally, the military is opposed to competition Thailand military has a longstanding economic interest Direct Indirect

Linkage between Corruption and competition Law Similar goal To address market dysfunction Anti-competitive behavior occurs in tandem with corruption For example, in public procurement It follows that highly competitive market drives away corruption However, competition law cannot address systematic corruption

Thailand Competition Law and Corruption Difficulties in Addressing Corruption in Thailand Ranked 101 out of 176 in corruption perceptions index Close ties between political and economic sector The system is fueled by clientelism Removal of explicit reference to anti-corruption in the law Withdrawal from the corruption narrative Standard substantive provisions to deal with corruption Public procurement

Structural Limitations Competing tools to deal with corruption Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases Recent example of possible competition issue: AOT-King Power Duty Free Minimal cooperation Concentrating on sectoral regulators Interference in the appointment of commissioners Appointed by the Prime Minister upon the recommendation of the Council of the Ministers from a list proposed by leading bureaucrats

Where do We Go From Here General consensus remains positive in the enforcement of the new competition law Expectance to use competition law to curb bid-rigging It remains to be seen whether it will be applied to address corruption cases

ploykaew.porananond@gmail.com