Time to end this game of THAI MONOPOLY

The same could happen anywhere: You successfully pitch a product to a big retail chain, but as part of the deal you must reveal your recipe and techniques. You acquire a loan to expand capacity and are poised to start production, but then you find that a nearly identical item is being produced by a different company under the retail giant’s umbrella. You are told that your deal is intact, but that your goods will be sold at 200 upmarket branches, while theirs will be sold in 8,000 convenience stores. 

The problem is that, while this might be unfair practice, it is not illegal. It seems that big businesses still get an easy ride from the Thai justice system. As such, cases like these hardly ever reach the public’s ear. Disputes between small-time suppliers and giant retailers, or between mom-and-pop stores and leading chains, usually end quietly with victory for the big corporations.

But this time consumers have been alerted. 

It is time lawmakers looked into this matter. 

The country needs stronger legislation to control the enormous power of big corporations. Law enforcement must be effective and fair if it is to provide justice to all. But this issue has never been debated in any Thai parliament, whether elected or unelected.

To regain some control over the situation, political leaders must show vision, determination and the 

 courage to shun any vested interest. The close relationship between politics and business in Thailand has always led to conflicts of interest and abuse of power. The resulting monopolistic practices make victims of both the consumers and those businesspeople who are “outside the loop”.

Rather than favouring corporate interests, laws should serve the wider community, including those who produce the “raw materials” on which big corporations depend. The law must also ensure that small suppliers are protected against the predatory practices of large conglomerates.

In other words, policies, laws and their enforcement must serve the “upstream” producers – including the farmers – as much as they do the large corporations “downstream”.

In developed countries, authorities keep a close watch on big business since they know that healthy competition is a prerequisite for a strong, growing economy. When the big fish are allowed to eat all the minnows, serious problems occur. If large corporations use their economies of scale to undercut and prevail over smaller businesses, they end up in a position where they can dominate and dictate in the marketplace.

Consumers are often lulled into the trap, happy to benefit from cheap products but failing to see they will lose out from the lack of competition in the long run, as big corporations dictate the prices for both suppliers and buyers.

The bigger these giants grow, the less bargaining power consumers and suppliers have. Consumer protection becomes an uphill task. And in the long run, the country’s economy suffers. Alerted to the threat, the Thai public is making its voice heard on the social media. It’s time that our policymakers and legislators took this issue seriously too.