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.