Selling something online but not clearly posting the price in Thailand? It is now against the law!

The Commerce Ministry warned e-tailers this week that listing online products without a price tag was illegal and carried a penalty of up to Bt10,000.

Chatchai Saksilapachai, Deputy Director-General, said that the regulation that all offline products must carry a price tag has been extended to include products sold online.

The new rule was being introduced in response to complaints that many products advertised online did not clearly indicate the price, forcing interested customers to send a message requesting a quotation. This considered unfair and illegal as it implies the seller is deliberately concealing the price and the service charge.

Screening e-tailers is hard rough work because of the physical locations of the merchants. The ministry thus encouraging anyone who found the illegal action to report by providing the leading price.

“Where the price tag is not shown, the sellers will face a penalty of a fine not exceeding Bt10,000 while stockists who refuse to comply with the prices set will face a prison term of 7 years or a fine not exceeding Bt140,000 baht or both. The announcement of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banks for the supervision of online and offline product labelling has been posted since July 4, though many people are still not aware of it.” Chatchai said.

The ministry notes that it has received a growing number of complaints: in 2019, 330 consumers complained of no price being shown, up from 178 complaints in 2018, while not maintaining the price of general products received 1,932 complaints in 2018 but reduced to 1,429 in 2019

Vuttikrai Leewiraphan, Director General at the Department of Business Development, said that the overall e-commerce business in 2019 grew 14.04 per cent and is valued Bt3.1 trillion. Ninety per cent of the customers use their smartphones for done online purchases.

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30379878

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Adam Judd
Mr. Adam Judd is the Co-owner of TPN Media since December 2017. He is originally from Washington D.C., America, but has also lived in Dallas, Sarasota, and Portsmouth. His background is in retail sales, HR, and operations management, and has written about news and Thailand for many years. He has lived in Pattaya for over nine years as a full-time resident, is well known locally and been visiting the country as a regular visitor for over a decade. His full contact information, including office contact information, can be found on our Contact Us page below. Stories please e-mail Editor@ThePattayanews.com About Us: https://thepattayanews.com/about-us/ Contact Us: https://thepattayanews.com/contact-us/