Will the full force and effect of the PDPA be postponed again?  The very likely answer is “NO”.  After having been postponed twice in 2020 and 2021, the PDPA has been scheduled to be fully enforced on and from 1^st June 2022.

Recently some federations of industries and chambers of commerce urged the authorities to further postpone the effective date of the PDPA as they have not yet been fully prepared to comply with this law.

However, Mr. Thienchai Na Nakorn, the Chairman of the Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC) told the public in early April 2022 that the full effective date of the PDPA would not be further postponed.  He said that several industrial sectors have been fully prepared to comply with the PDPA, and that a further delay of its full enforcement could result in Thailand losing the country competitiveness and opportunities of attracting foreign investments.

Will the implementation rules of the PDPA be enacted before 1^st June this year?  The very likely answer is “NO”.  In the past two years, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) acting as the interim Office of the PDPC and Chulalongkorn University (CU) set up a working team to prepare drafts of the principles of subordinate regulations of the PDPA.  MDES and CU have organized several public hearings and consultations for the draft principles.

However, as of April 2022 none of the drafts of the implementation regulations has been published for public hearing, although it is expected that they would be submitted to the PDPC for their review and approval in the second half of 2022.

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