Details of Terms and Conditions for the Digital Platform Service Businesses
On 21 August 2023, the Royal Decree on the Operation of Digital Platform Service Businesses that are Subject to Prior Notification B.E. 2565 (2022) (“Royal Decree”) has come into force. In this regard, Section 17 of the Royal Degree requires the digital platform service and the search engine Providers that meet certain requirements to prepare and publish the terms and conditions with minimum information as prescribed in the Royal Decree (“Terms and Conditions”). The Royal Decree itself, however, did not provide details or clarifications in regard to such minimum requirements. As such, the Electronic Transaction Development Agency (“ETDA”) has issued a Notification of ETDA number Thor.Por.Dor. 4/2566 on the Details on the Publication of Terms and Conditions of Services for Users’ Knowledge (“Notification”).
The Notification consisted of various details important for the digital platform service providers to comply with. The key provisions can be categorized as provisions that further clarify Section 17 of the Royal Decree and provisions that assign additional obligations to the digital platform service providers. Some of the key provisions are summarized as follows:
- The Terms and Conditions must be in Thai, easily understandable by the platform’s users, made easy in terms of accessibility, and composed of enough details for the user to make an informed decision whether to use the platform or not. The digital platform service providers must also notify the ETDA and provide evidence showing that they have published the Terms and Conditions for the users’ knowledge.
- Where the digital platform service providers treat each of the products, services, or contents of the business users differently, the digital platform service providers must clearly specify the differences in the Terms and Conditions.
- In addition to the prescribed minimum requirement in Section 17 of the Royal Decree, the digital platform service providers that meet the requirement of Section 16 (1) of the Royal Decree must also prescribe an additional item, such as an additional distribution channel, the ownership or entitlement in intellectual property after entering into the Terms and Conditions, ancillary or complementary goods and services that is offered to the users before the transaction is concluded, conditions for suspending or terminating the provision of services, etc.
- The Notification further provides an example, easing the digital platform service providers to comply with Section 17 of the Royal Decree, that is, the example of algorithms required to be included in the Terms and Conditions are given, for example, price, keywords, user demographic, quality of products, quality of seller, users’ review towards the goods or services.
- Where Section 17 (8) of the Royal Decree requires the digital platform service providers to include in the Terms and Conditions, “an actions to be taken to illegal goods, services, or contents”, the Royal Decree further clarifies that the digital platform service providers must specify if the processes, measures, or mechanism used by the digital platform service providers in determining if a good, service, or contents are illegal or not, are done by an algorithm decision-making, or by human review. The Notification further requires the digital platform service providers to have in place a notice-and-takedown mechanism and details thereof.
Please be reminded that the aforementioned information is only a brief detail prescribed under the Notification. Terms and Conditions to be prepared in accordance with the Notification are said to be of complex structures and details. Digital platform service providers must pay attention to the details to avoid any incompliance with the law.
Author: Panisa Suwanmatajarn, Managing Partner.
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