Implementation of daily fines dealing with consumer protection cases

Abstract

The objectives of this research are to study the theoretical concepts related to punishment and fines of criminal cases, investigate the legal measures related to the enforcement of criminal fines in Thailand, analyze the rationale of legal measures for applying the daily systemic fines of consumer protection cases in Thailand and foreign countries and obtain guidelines for applying the principles of daily fine systems used for consumer protection cases in Thailand. In this regard, the study was conducted by a qualitative research system.
The study was found that fines were imposed on the offender's property instead of short-term imprisonment. It could be divided into 2 systems, namely the fixed rate adjustment and the inverse adjustment according to income (daily fines). The consumer protection case of the country at present, the law still uses a fixed rate adjustment system. but in other countries such as Sweden, Finland, Germany, France and the United States certify the inverse fine penalty system based on income (daily fines) applicable in a general manner. The reason that the penalty system of income-based inverse fine imposes a fine in which the amount of the fine is proportional to the degrees of the penalty or the severity of the offenses and varies according to the income or economic status of the offenders as well. Thus, creating equal legal effects between rich and poor offenders. This includes the case of entrepreneur or business operator offenders of consumer protection cases. Therefore, the principal recommendations, that is, Thailand should accept the introduction of the income-based inverse penalty system (daily fine) to apply for consumer protection cases with the section amendment of "Daily fine" in the Consumer Protection Act B.E. 2522.There are 3 factors to determine appropriate fines for offenders: 1) the severity of the act, 2) the consequences of the act, and 3) the offender's financial status.