Thailand: Announced TCC's assesment of food delivery platform practices

On 12 May 2021, the Trade Competition Commission (TCC) invited five major food delivery platform operators—Grab, Lineman, Gojek, Foodpanda, and Robinhood—to an online meeting to address concerns about high Gross Profit (GP) rates affecting small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) restaurateurs. The action was prompted by reports on social media and mass media indicating that these platforms were charging GP rates of over 30-35%, significantly impacting SME restaurateurs already struggling due to income losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The TCC stated that the meeting aimed to ensure fairer GP rates and compliance with trade competition laws. At the time, Grab, Lineman, Gojek, and Foodpanda were collecting GP rates of no more than 30% (excluding VAT), while Robinhood did not collect any GP. The TCC urged all platform operators to consider reducing GP rates and implement other relief measures to mitigate the pandemic's impact on restaurateurs. The TCC requested that these platforms evaluate the feasibility of such assistance and report back to the TCC within the following week.