Leading energy drink company ‘engaged in unfair practices’
THE TRADE Competition Board will file a case with the Office of the Attorney-General over a major energy-drink producer allegedly forcing retail outlets not to sell the products of its rivals.
The attorney-general will decide whether to take legal action against the firm. Board member Santichai Santawanpas said that Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn chaired the board meeting last week in which it was decided to file the case.
Santichai declined to reveal the company’s name.
But he said that it had the largest market share in the energy-drink sector in Thailand.
Complaint filed
The controversy came to light after an energy-drink company filed a complaint with the Trade Competition Board, alleging the rival company was engaged in an unfair practice by forcing traders not to sell its rivals’ drinks by threatening to withhold its products from traders.
An investigation by a Trade Competition Board subcommittee found that the leading energy-drink firm had committed an unfair practice by forbidding traders from selling the products of its rivals.
It found that the behaviour limited trading opportunities.
The firm may have breached the Trade Competition Act’s articles 25 and 29, which concern market-dominance practices that reduce competition and colluding with traders to have market dominance.
If found guilty, the company faces a maximum fine of Bt6 million. The offence also carries a possible prison term of three years.
Santichai said the Internal Trade Department, the secretary-general of the investigation subcommittee, said the case would soon by filed at the Office of the Attorney-General.
If the attorney-general agrees with the board, the matter could be taken to court.
If the case were rejected, the board could bring it to court. There was a similar case in the past, but the attorney-general rejected it and nothing happened.
Meanwhile, the Internal Trade Department will ask for Cabinet approval to consider a new draft of the Trade Competition Act, which could be implemented this year.
Wiboonraksana Ruamraksa, director-general of the department, said the new draft would more efficiently punish unfair traders.
Wiboonraksana said it should be ratified within the next three months and implemented this year.
The new law would change the maximum fine for breaches of the Act from Bt6 million to 20 per cent of the annual income.
