Jurisdiction of Electronic Transaction in Thailand

Songsil Norintorongkul Na Ayudhaya*

This Section supports the same rule of the Contract Law by defining the place where the electronic transaction is made is the place where the acceptance has been received by a person who makes the offer. In the case of electronic transaction the person who is considered to be "the addressee" according to Section 24 is the person who received the acceptance and it can be concluded that the place of the addressee's business or the place of the addressee's residence is the place where the electronic transaction is made.

Furthermore, the Conflict of Law Act B.E.2481 (1938) Section 13 also provides rule of prescription the place where the contract is made that

This Act upholds the rule to determine the place where the contract is made in the same approach of Section 24 of the Electronic Transaction Act B.E.2544 (2001).

Therefore, if the addressee is the plaintiff who lives in the territory of Thailand during the time the transaction is made, the plaintiff can bring the lawsuit against the defendant outside Thailand according to the Civil Procedure Code B.E.2477 (1934) Section 4 (1).

In the case that the cause of action does not arise in the territory of Thailand and the defendant does not hold Thai nationality and lives outside Thailand, Section 4 ter might regulate the personal jurisdiction over the defendant, if the plaintiff holds Thai nationality or has domicile in Thailand as mentioned above. However, the issue of electronic transaction is much more complicated than traditional transaction, the plaintiff might need to show the court more than only the connection between jurisdiction and plaintiff before the court will accepts the plaint to consider but in present day, there is no discussion concerning this issue in the Court of Justice of Thailand. So we cannot predict what criteria the Court will apply to deal with this issues in the future.

In practice, the Civil Court and other Courts of First Instance such as Provincial Courts have jurisdiction to consider and adjudicate all civil and commercial disputes between parties according to the rules of the Civil Procedure Code B.E.2477 (1934). However, the Court of Justice of Thailand established the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court which is the specialized Court to deal with special civil and commercial cases prescribed in the Act for the Establishment of and Procedure for Intellectual Property and International Trade Court B.E. 2539 (1996) Section 7.(20)