The necessity of third party participation in merger proceedings under the Thai Trade Competition Act B.E. 2560

Literature on Thai competition law has repeatedly acknowledged the ineffectiveness of Thai merger control regime. This issue has largely been attributed to the underdevelopment of the procedural rules surrounding merger reviews and the wide margin of discretion left to the Trade Competition Commission (the TCC), the agency responsible for merger reviews and rendering decisions to prohibit anticompetitive mergers. However, the TCC has yet to issue a prohibition, even in the face of merger proposals that would seemingly have anticompetitive effects. In these controversial cases, affected third parties have been vocal in their criticisms of the TCC and its failure to afford an opportunity to participate in merger proceedings. However, do third parties have a right to participate in merger proceedings?This thesis explores this procedural aspect of Thai merger proceedings as regulated under the Thai Trade Competition Act B.E. 2560. More specifically, it aims to answer whether and to what extent third party participation is necessary in Thai merger review proceedings and whether the current procedural rules in the Thai merger control regime accommodate adequate third party participation. In answering these questions, the thesis provides some fundamental understanding of merger control which reveals the necessity of merger control and entails the explanation of the current legal framework of merger control in Thailand in which third parties’ participation is not stipulated. The necessity of third parties’ participation is subsequently considered and established through the exploration of different arguments put forward. The necessity for third parties’ participation within the merger control regime, in particular, is consolidated given that third parties are unable to derive participatory rights from any other applicable laws, namely the Constitution and administrative law.In view of the finding that third parties’ participation is necessary during merger proceedings but is not accommodated by any applicable laws, comparative research into the approaches taken by the European Union and the United States illuminates how the Thai merger proceedings can be improved to better align itself with the need to provide third party participation.