Thailand’s merger control law is found in the Trade Competition Act B.E. 2560 (2017), administered and implemented by the Trade Competition Commission (TCC), with other merger control rules found in the following:

• Criteria for Consideration of Entrepreneurs who are in Positions Relevant to Policies or Authorities B.E. 2561 (2018);
• Rules for Consideration of Assets or Share Acquisitions qualified as a Merger in order to gain Control Policy over Business Administration, Management or Supervision B.E. 2561 (2018);
• Criteria for Being Business Operator with Market Dominant Position B.E. 2563 (2020);
• Rules, Procedures and Conditions for Notification of Business Merging Results B.E. 2561 (2018); and

Criteria, Procedures and Conditions in Requesting Permission for Mergers B.E. 2561 (2018).

No data available.

The assessment of mergers by TCC considers the following:

1. Details of merging and merged undertakings which containing shareholding structures, voting and control rights, sales revenues, and market shares;
2. Details of merger transaction which containing date of transaction, date of notifying commission, value of transaction and merging procedure;
3. Pre and post-merger market structure;
4. Assess the existence of merging and merged undertakings in Thailand according to section 5 of Trade Competition Act B.E. 2560 (2017);
5. Assess market structure of products or services of those undertakings comprising of analyses on: market definition, market share and market concentration of the undertakings before and after the merger and sales revenues of the undertakings before and after the merger.

For post-merger notification, there is no statutory time limit within which the TCC should assess the transaction, only that the parties should notify the outcome of such merger to the Commission within 7 days from the date of merging.

For pre-merger approval, the period for assessment is 90 days, extendible up to 15 days. The notification should be filed before completing the transaction subject to the consideration procedure of 90 days (extendable by 15 days).

There are mandatory ex ante and ex post approval processes in Thailand.

Post-merger notification is required for mergers that may cause substantial lessening competition (SLC) in a particular market. The acquirer or the surviving entities (as the case may be) must notify the merger to TCCT after closing in relation to transactions where the value of sales achieved by any of the merging parties or the value of their combined sales reaches one billion baht in the relevant market, and such merger does not result in a monopoly or result in a dominant position. The period to notify is 7 calendar days after the completion of the transaction.

Pre-merger approval is required to be obtained by the acquirer or the merging parties from TCCT when a merger may result in a monopoly or a dominant position.

The criteria for monopoly or a dominant position is as follows:
1. Monopoly: Market Share is equal to 100%;
2. Single Dominance: Market Share is equal to or greater than 50%;
3. Collective Dominance: Market Share is equal to or greater than 75%.
The above criteria shall not be applied to any undertaking with market share in the preceding year lower than 10%.

The notification fee for a pre-merger approval is 250,000 Baht, while there is no fee for a post-merger notification.

Exemptions from merger notification are as follows:

• businesses that are specifically regulated under other sectoral laws having jurisdiction over competition matters (Section 4).
  - Telecommunication and broadcasting: The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has specific regulations governing competition in relation to business mergers.
  - Energy: Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission (OERC) has specific regulations governing competition in relation to business mergers.

• a merger conducted in order to adjust the internal structure of a business operator related to each other due to a policy or commanding power as prescribed in the Commission’s notification (Section 51, clause 6).

The notification form is available at https://www.tcct.or.th/view/1/mergers_procedure/TH-TH. Additional information on Thailand’s merger control regime is available at http://www.tcct.or.th/view/1/business_combination/TH-TH and
https://www.tcct.or.th/view/1/Verdict_mergers/TH-TH.