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Who are General Digital Platform Service Providers ?

Writer's picture: Lexpertise Law FirmLexpertise Law Firm

Updated: Nov 20, 2023

Nandana Indananda

​General digital platform service providers are highly regulated under digital platform laws and can be categorized into five types based on their size and type of services. These providers have varying levels of legal responsibilities, including submitting information relating business operation, appointing domestic coordinators, reporting annually, notifying authorities and users of changes of service terms and conditions, providing measures to mitigate damage and compensation, and establishing a complaint handling system. Compliance with these regulations is crucial, as non-compliance may lead to legal consequences.


General digital platform service providers are a group of service providers that are subject to the highest level of regulation under digital platform laws. As such, these types of business operators have numerous legal obligations that they must comply with. This article explains who general digital platform service providers are, how many types there are, and what their responsibilities entail.

Similar to the term 'small-scale or low-impact digital platform service providers,' the term 'general digital platform service providers' is not explicitly defined in digital platform laws. However, these terms appear in other regulations, such as the ETDA notification regarding the form for digital platform service providers subject to notification and the ETDA notification regarding the annual report form for the notification of business operations. This raises the issue of determining who qualifies as a 'general digital platform service provider' and what legal responsibilities they have.

 

Types of General Digital Platform Service Providers

Generally speaking, "general digital platform service providers" refers to digital platform service providers that are neither "small-scale or low-impact digital platform service providers" nor digital platforms owned by state agencies that are not directly involved in commercial activities. Therefore, "general digital platform service providers" refer to the following service providers.

  1. Digital platform service providers with an average of more than 5,000 users per month and annual revenue from services provided in Thailand exceeding 50 million baht, in the case of juristic persons, or 1.8 million baht per year, in the case of natural persons who do not charge service fees to users, are referred to as "general digital platform service providers" or "digital platform service providers without service fees".

  2. Digital platform service providers with an average of more than 5,000 users per month and annual revenue from services provided in Thailand exceeding 50 million baht, in the case of juristic persons, or 1.8 million baht per year, in the case of natural persons who charge service fees to users, are referred to as "general digital platform service providers" or "digital platform service providers with service fees".

  3. The digital platform service business that provides data search services, commonly known as a Search Engine, is not specifically defined in the Royal Decree on Digital Platform Service Business. However, it is referred to in Section 16 (2) only. Later, the Electronic Transactions Development Agency announced details of the announcement of the agreement and conditions for providing digital platform services to users, defining "digital platform service that allows users to search for websites in any language by entering data in the form of keywords, voice commands, phrases or other information. The aforementioned digital platform service displays search results related to that information in any format." Therefore, in this context, data search service refers to the act of searching for information on websites worldwide, not just on one particular website.

  4. The large-scale digital platform service providers, whose annual revenue from digital platform services in each category exceeds 300 million baht per year, or in total exceeds 1 billion baht per year from all categories combined, or have a monthly average number of service users in Thailand exceeding 10% of the total population or approximately 6.6 million people.

  5. Digital platform service providers with unique characteristics. These service providers are those that pose financial and commercial risks or may have an impact on state stability.

 

Duties of General Digital Platform Service Providers

These service providers are the main targets of digital platform laws that aim to control business operations to be fair and transparent. The responsibilities of these service providers vary, with those that do not charge fees having the least amount of control and regulation, while large digital platform service providers have the most responsibilities. In general, digital platform service providers have responsibilities such as:

  1. The duty to notify the commencement of business operations before starting the business.

  2. The duty to appoint a coordinator in the Kingdom, in cases where the business operator operates outside the Kingdom.

  3. The duty to report annual business operation information.

  4. The duty to report changes in business operation information within 30 days from the date of change.

  5. The duty to notify the office when there is a modification of the terms and conditions of service provision.

  6. The duty to notify the authorities in advance of business termination.

  7. The duty to inform users of the terms and conditions before or during the use of the service.

  8. The duty to inform users when the terms and conditions of the service are amended or revised.

  9. The duty to provide measures to mitigate damage and provide compensation or remedy, which includes the duty to establish a complaint handling system. (Only large digital platform service providers and digital platform service providers with specific characteristics.)

  10. The duty to provide measures to mitigate damage and provide compensation or remedy in the terms and conditions of the service. (Only large digital platform service providers and digital platform service providers with specific characteristics.)

In summary, general platform service providers have responsibilities before starting, during, and when terminating their business operations. In addition to submitting information and reports to the Electronic Transactions Development Agency, service providers also have many other responsibilities to users, such as announcing terms and conditions, which must comply with the law. If these agreements do not comply with the law, they may not be enforceable, and the service provider may be considered as not complying with legal standards.


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