Compliance with these regulations will require substantial changes to the structural and algorithmic design of platforms that offer both marketplace infrastructure and competing products.

These proposed regulations primarily target U.S. technology companies, compelling them to alter their platform infrastructure while local and regional competitors remain exempt from such obligations.

Overall, these regulations threaten the foundational advantages of U.S. technology leadership by imposing specific design mandates and increasing legal and financial risks for U.S. firms in Southeast Asia.

Thailand's draft Digital Platform Economy Act (DPEA) introduces significant regulations targeting large online platforms, classified as 'gatekeepers,' which must meet specific thresholds including over 7 billion baht in domestic revenue, 15 million monthly users, and 10,000 annual business users for three consecutive years.

Under the DPEA, these gatekeepers will face 14 obligations that restrict their operational practices, such as banning self-preferencing, limiting third-party sellers' pricing, and misusing non-public business data.

Additionally, the regulation prohibits gatekeepers from prioritizing their own goods or services over those of third parties in search results and recommendation systems.

If similar regulations are adopted by other ASEAN countries, it may further entrench disadvantages for U.S. digital platforms in a region that is vital for future digital competitiveness.

The act also prohibits these platforms from restricting business users from selling their products on other platforms or directly, even under different pricing or conditions.

The cost of complying with these divergent interoperability standards is notably high for firms in sectors like cloud services, app stores, and financial services, where security and data integration are crucial.

U.S. companies will need to adjust their system design, user interface, and data handling to meet these requirements, complicating compliance and increasing operational risks.

This creates an uneven playing field, as domestic and regional competitors below the defined thresholds are not subject to the same stringent regulations.

The fragmentation and operational constraints introduced by the DPEA could lead to a patchwork of compliance obligations for U.S. firms, raising costs and limiting their ability to standardize features across markets.