Four organic laws under PPDA published in Royal Gazette

DES Minister Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn said the four organic laws were published in the Royal Gazette on Monday and took effect immediately after they were approved by the Personal Data Protection Committee a week earlier.

The first organic law would exempt SMEs and community enterprises from having to log working records of data controllers.

Chaiwut said the exemption would be applied to the following organisations:

- SMEs and factories that hire no more than 200 workers with an income not exceeding 500 million baht a year or a retail shop or company that hires no more than 100 employees with an income of 300 million baht a year.

- Community enterprises

- Enterprises that work for society

- Cooperatives

- Foundations, associations, religious organisations and NGOs

- Family enterprises or similar businesses.

Chaiwut said the second organic law granted a 180-day grace period for other companies or orgnaisations to make preparations for the enforcement of the PDPA.

Chaiwut said the third organic law set minimum requirements for protecting personal data in line with safety measures announced by the DES Ministry, which have been in use for two years.

He said the minimum safety requirements would not add a big cost burden on private firms.

Chaiwut said the fourth organic law allows a committee of experts to be lenient to companies that are found to violate the PDPA without intention. They could be fined or warned instead of being sent to court for harsher penalties.

He also said the ministry wanted to see minimum obstacles to the enforcement of the PDPA, which began on June 1, so it enacted the four organic laws.

The Personal Data Protection Committee is considering four other PDPA draft organic laws, which may be announced this month, he added but not elaborate.