There is no requirement for functional separation for operators with significant market power. However, accounting separation is required.

The Trade Competition Act regulates and supervises the country's businesses to ensure free and fair trade in every sector. The Act addresses competition issues, such as the abuse of dominant position, anti-competitive mergers, unfair business practices, exemptions, and penalties. However, the Act shall not apply to the state-owned enterprises, public organizations, or other government agencies, only if their activities are considered, by-laws or resolutions of the Cabinet, necessary for the benefit of maintaining national security, public interest, the interest of society, or the provision of public utilities (Section 4(2)). For example, the majority of the telecommunications infrastructure, such as the national broadband network and most submarine cable landing stations, is owned by the Government through SOEs. Thailand's two state-owned (SOE) telecommunications companies are TOT Public Company Limited and CAT Telecom Public Company Limited. The WTO report revealed that this exclusion had enabled major players in key sectors to abuse their market power and engage in collusive behavior. While this is considered a positive development, it has been suggested that the partial retention of this carve-out has the potential to be a broad exemption in practice, depending on how widely it is construed.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) regulates the telecommunication sector and is the authority for competition issues. The Trade Competition Act only applies to these sectors only when relevant competition issues are not addressed by the sectoral regulations. In addition, the NBTC published the Notification of the NBTC on Merger Regulatory Measures for Broadcasting and Telecommunications Business in 2018. According to this Notification, the NBTC regulates the merger of the telecommunication business to prevent unfair competition. The licensee requires to submit the report and other details such as ownership structure to the NBTC as required. However, this Notification will not apply to the SOEs or other governmental concessions (Clause 15).

In general, regarding the telecommunications sector, the restrictions vary depending on the type of license required. Any person who wishes to operate a telecommunications business in the country is required to obtain a license issued by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) (Section 7).
(1) Type 1: Telecommunications operators who provide telecommunications service without operating their telecommunications network;
(2) Type 2: Telecommunications operators who provide services to a specific group of customers with or without operating their own telecommunications network;
(3) Type 3: Telecommunications operators who provide their own telecommunications network for the use of the general public.

The NBTC Notification in 2020 provides specific requirements for obtaining a license, including the applicant's qualification, procedures to grant the license and conditions. The validity period of each type of license is different: Type1 and Type 2 are no expiry date, and Type 3 is 15-25 years.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)'s Notification in 2019 provides the characteristics and types of telecommunications business required to obtain a telecommunications business license (Type 1, Type 2, or Type 3) as prescribed in the Telecommunications Business Act. Appendix A and B include the lists of telecommunications businesses that require to apply for a license (Appendix C provides the telecommunication business that not requires to obtain a license).
-Appendix A includes the following list:
(1) Wireline Network: Copper wire network, Fiber optic network, Submarine cable network, Power line network, including Voice over IP (VoIP), etc.
(2) Wireless Network: Satellite network, Mobile phone network, Specific Group: trunked radio, single-channel, multi-channel, Wireless mobile phone network, Radio communication network, Photonic network, and electromagnetic wave networks, etc.
(3) Telecommunication facilities/ infrastructure (towers, cables, pipes, etc.)

-Appendix B includes the following list:
(1) Telecommunication service that has its own network: public switched telephone service, leased circuit/channel services, broadband internet service, terrestrial link service, satellite uplink/downlink service, etc.
(2) Telecommunication service that does not have own network: internet service, audio text service, VPN, VSAT service, non-facilities-based MVNO, etc.

In addition, the NBTC Notification in 2020 provides that telecommunication businesses listed in the Appendix of this Notification are allowed to acquire an 'Automatic License'. The Automatic License is a fast-track application process, granting license within 7-15 days (regular procedures prolong to 90 days).
(*Remark: Appendix of 2020 Notification covers VoIP/ Colocation, Dedicated Server, Backup Server, Virtual Private Server, Web Hosting, Mail Hosting/ EDI Service/ International Calling Card/ Store-and-Retrieve Value-Added Service/ Cloud Computing/ Video Conference/ Forward Call/ Audiotext Service/ RoIP/ VPN, VPLS, IP-VPN, etc.)

According to the Special 301 Report (USTR), Thailand remains on the Watch List in 2020. Regarding the report, counterfeit and pirated goods continue to be readily available, both in physical markets and online. The United States urges Thailand to continue to improve on its provision of effective and deterrent enforcement measures. Thailand should address the issue of online piracy by devices and applications that allow users to stream and download unauthorized content. Moreover, the widespread use of unlicensed software in both the public and private sectors, lengthy civil IP enforcement proceedings, and low civil damages, and extensive cable and satellite signal theft is concerned. Therefore, Thailand should provide an effective system for protecting against unfair commercial use.

However, Thailand has seized counterfeit and pirated goods and increased efforts to combat the sale of counterfeit goods online, as well as published enforcement statistics online. The Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) is in the process of amendment the Copyright Act in order to increase efficiency of protection copyright work on the internet and prepare for Thailand’s accession to the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT). In addition, Thailand has established a voluntary and cooperative mechanism to continue its effort to fight against online IPR infringement. Therefore, the MOU on cooperation for IPR protection on the internet, signed by three big internet platforms in Thailand (Lazada, Shopee, and JD Central), representatives of right holders and relevant government agencies under the Ministry of Commerce (DIP, DBD and DITP) were signed in January 2021.

Lack of signature of the WIPO Copyright Treaty.

Lack of signature of the WIPO Performances and Phonogram Treaty.

According to Trade Secrets Act, trade secrets can be in any means or any medium which conveys statement, story, fact in formula, form, compilations, or assembled works, programs, methods, techniques, or processes (Section 3). The disclosure or use of trade secrets by a governmental agency that supervises the maintenance of trade secrets shall not deem as an infringement of rights in trade secrets, in the following cases:
(1) When it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the public, or;
(2) When it is necessary for the benefit of the public, not for a commercial purpose, the governmental agency must proceed under the procedure to protect such trade secrets from being used in unfair trading activities (Section 7 (2)).

The National Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) regulates and specifies characters of the merger, cross-media ownership-holding, or business take-over in the sound broadcasting services and television services using frequency waves, amongst the mass media or by any other person (Section 27 (17)).

Foreign acquisition of a domestic locally incorporated entity is allowed. The merger in the telecommunication industry is regulated by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC or the NBTC). Regarding the notification, the following circumstances are considered a merger:
(1) a licensee or its controlling shareholder mergers with other licensees (when one licensee will cease to exist);
(2) a licensee or its controlling shareholder acquires wholly or partly the assets of other licensees;
(3) a licensee or its controlling shareholder acquires more than 30% of the total voting rights of another licensee or significant control over another licensee (Clause 2(5)).
Therefore, the acquirer must file a merger review petition to the NBTC at least 60 days before the execution. The NBTC may only grant permission to the acquirer to execute a merger that does not cause market dominance. In addition, the NBTC authorizes to examine the effect on competition of a permitted merger.

Regarding the notification of the significant market power, the significant market power (SMP) defines as operator capability may pose a barrier to competition in the relevant market. The NBTC shall assess the markets that are non-competitive and the market that have barriers to competition. Moreover, the NBTC shall identify the significant market power operators as the requirements laid down in this notification.

The Patent Act 1979 (amended since 1999) provides that an applicant for a patent shall possess one of the following qualifications (Section 14, Part 1: Applications for patents):
(1) a Thai national or a juristic person having its headquarters located in Thailand;
(2) a national to a convention/international agreement on patent protection, which Thailand is also a party;
(3) a national of a country which allows Thai nationals/juristic persons having headquarters to apply for patents in that country;
(4) domiciled or an industrial or commercial establishment in Thailand or a country party to a convention or an international agreement on patent protection to which Thailand is also a party.

To file patents, the Ministerial Regulation states that if the patent applicant does not reside in the Kingdom of Thailand, the applicant shall authorize an agent or patent attorney registered with the Director-General of the Department of Intellectual Property to act on his behalf (Clause 13). Moreover, the Power of Attorney (POA) shall be attached with the revenue stamp of 30 Thai Baht (around 1 USD) for each patent agent/patent attorney/application. The POA document if not in a foreign language is required to translate to the Thai language (Clause 15).

(*Remark: Section 14 of the Patent Act 1979 is amended by Section 5 of the Patent Act 1999 (No.3).)

Thailand is currently only an observer to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement since 3 June 2015. The WTO report in 2020 states that the authorities indicate that it is not yet in a position to consider obtaining full membership in the GPA in the coming years.

The Foreign Business Act (FBA) 1999 regulates foreign investment in Thailand. Section 4 of the Act defines "foreigner" as companies with at least one-half of capital or shares held by foreigners as well as a limited partnership or a registered ordinary partnership with foreigners as the managing partner or the manager. According to the FBA, foreigners are not allowed to operate in the business sectors listed in the Annexed List (3 Lists). These sectors include telecommunications. Therefore, the foreign equity share for these sectors is capped at 49%. Nevertheless, the foreigners can have shared more than 49%, if they receive a Foreign Business License (FBL) or Foreign Business Certificate from the Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations (this certificate only applies to American investors).

Regarding the telecommunications sector, the restrictions vary depending on the type of license required. While there are no ownership restrictions for Type 1 license (Telecommunications operators who provide telecommunications service without operating their telecommunications network), the Telecommunications Business Act 2001 sets a cap of 49% for Type 2 (Telecommunications operators who provide services to a specific group of customers with or without operating their own telecommunications network) and Type 3 (Telecommunications operators who provide their own telecommunications network, for the use of the general public) (Section 8 of the Telecommunications Business Act (amended)).

(*Remark: Previously from 2001 to 2006, the share of FDI for type 2 and 3 was lower 25%.)

The Budget Procedures Act provides that the foreigner is not allowed to acquire shares exceeding 50 percent in publicly controlled firms or state-owned enterprises (SOEs) (Section 4).