DTCC Webinar on company preparations for PDPA compliance

The Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce has received requests from our members to give a seminar on the PDPA compliance and how to prepare yourself as smooth as possible. In this regard, Ms. Auradee P. Wongsaroj, Attorney-at-Law, from Tilleke & Gibbins has offered to give a presentation on the status of PDPA in Thailand and on how to comply with question and answers. Last year, the Thai government passed the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (the “PDPA”) and published it in the Government Gazette on 27 May 2019, to be effective one year later. However, the government recently announced the postponement of certain sections of the PDPA, meaning the law will be fully effective on 1 June 2021.

It was decided to move the webinar on PDPA to 27 August 2020 as a number of members that were on holiday and would like to attend this webinar have asked whether we could move the webinar till the end of August.

In this regard, we would like to make the members aware of the fact that the implementation of PDPA has not been postponed but only certain sections of the law have been postponed to next year (12 months). From some of the companies we have consulted on the issue of postponing the PDPA there is a clear misconception that it is the whole PDPA that has been postponed which is wrong.

In this regard, the chamber strongly encourages members to join this seminar so it is clear as to which sections of the PDPA have been postponed as well as learn how to prepare your business in the best possible way for the implementation of the PDPA in Thailand.

The Royal Decree to postpone the PDPA was published, on 21 May 2020, in the Royal Gazette of the Kingdom of Thailand. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (‘MDES’) issued, on 8 June 2020, a statement on the PDPA’s postponement. In particular, the MDES noted that government agencies, private and public institutions were not ready for the enforcement of the legislation. Furthermore, the MDES clarified that it will focus on measures to ensure that such agencies or institutions will store personal information separately from other data, with security measures, and that access rights are established.

So what now? Is the law now only partly effective and how does this work? This presentation will provide an overview of the essential information that Thai companies need to know about the PDPA, discuss the recent postponement of certain sections of the law, and provide practical tips for compliance preparation.