Thai man fined and sentenced to prison over craft beer review

[snoop1130]

Artid Sivahansaphan with politicians in favour of amending the Alcohol Control Act | Photo via Facebook page Baek Beer Hai Plia Kaem

 

A court in central Thailand fined a man 150,000 baht and handed him a six-month suspended prison sentence for posting a picture and review of a craft beer on Facebook. He paid an additional 150,000 baht to be released on bail.

 

In 2020, Artid Sivahansaphan posted a review on the Facebook page “Daek Beer Hai Plia Kaem,” a beer review page with thousands of followers.

 

Nonthaburi Provincial Court ruled on Friday that Artid Sivahansaphan’s beer review violated Section 32 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (2008) which prohibits, “advertising or displaying, directly or indirectly, the name or trademark of any alcoholic beverage.” Breaking this law carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a 500,000 baht fine.

 

The convicted alcohol advertiser said he plans to appeal his sentence in the hopes of doing rid of a draconian law that he believes is unfair to both consumers and small business owners.

 

Initially, Nonthaburi Provincial Court sentenced Artid to eight months in prison and a 200,000 baht fine for “enticing” others to drink. The court then reduced his sentence to a six months prison sentence and a fine of 150,000 as well as an additional daily fine of 5000 baht per day. However, the sentence is suspended for two years.

 

The court said the additional 5,000 baht daily fine was because Artid refused to “correct” the rest of his beer reviews on the Facebook page.

 

Artid paid an additional 150,000 baht to be released on bail…

 

Full Story: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/thai-man-fined-and-sentenced-to-prison-over-craft-beer-review

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-04-25

 

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[wildpuppet72]

Ludacris! 

[worgeordie]

If only they were that servere with DUI drivers ........but putting up a picture

of a beer on the Internet , your in big trouble...  the irony .

 

regards worgeordie

[phetphet]

What about those beer girls in their beer dresses and the beer table mats etc? Isn't all that a form of advertising?

[proton]

should have stuck to cannabis, what an insane sentence

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, wildpuppet72 said:

Ludacris! 

Where? In Bangkok?

 

When?

[RandiRona]

When can we expect Thailand to come out of Dark ages?? For crying out sake Thailand is known as R&R capital of world and it is not because of temples. Instead of enabling better education and knowledge for the masses, they are punishing the masses for exposing reality.

[tomazbodner]

2 hours ago, phetphet said:

What about those beer girls in their beer dresses and the beer table mats etc? Isn't all that a form of advertising?

 

These, you mean?

[bendejo]

No doubt it was this atrocious behavior that caused so many students to drop out in the past year.  Menace to society is what this guy is!

 

 

[freedomnow]

crazy Thailand and its crazy rules.

 

 

[Lemsta69]

9 hours ago, wildpuppet72 said:

Ludacris! 

Rediculous even.

[dslocum]

6 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

 

These, you mean?

Dare I say, you're in serious trouble now Mate!

[madmitch]

Let's hope that Thailand elects a Government that will get rid of ridiculous laws like these. 

[spidermike007]

In a country that is facing so many pressing issues, it is a bit of an abomination that a judge would impose a fine on this guy. Such bizarre nonsense. Such a twisted interpretation of the law. 

 

Or is this simply a bought and paid for judge, who will not tolerate the promotion of good beer, by a small producer? 

[Straight8]

makes you wonder what goes through their pea-sized brains when these sort of laws are put into place.. If putting up a negative hotel stay review & getting sued wasn't absolute madness, now this. SMH

[akaika]

There are many countries that have had to challenge laws that affect home brewing and craft brewing.  What is unique here, (beyond unique 'bizarre' is more accurate), is that the violation was about advertising/promoting drinking.  It is of course a maze of bureaucracy to legally produce alcohol for sale in Thailand but it can be done.  Only one place comes to mind where the advertising/publicizing of it was the specific legal impediment; Japan.  In 1990 there were fewer than 10 microbreweries because the use of the terms, "beer" "brew" "malt" were strictly prohibited except for the few major companies.  There was a 'substitute' word "Happōshu"  which only meant low malt but there was no reason they needed to actually lower the malt content and so it soon became a kind of 'code' that this was craft beer.  By 2000 when the laws started to change, there was over 300 Japanese craft brewers at the International beer show in Tokyo.

If anyone has followed this person's efforts they will know that he has actually made serious progress collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures and even having the judicial prosecutors tell him (after his conviction) that they feel he is justified in his efforts (maybe they like craft beer).
 

[Lemsta69]

20 minutes ago, Robert Tyrrell said:

Good Morning,

 

What an absolute absurdity !! Meanwhile other Thai Nationals put more then 2 on a motorcycle, No helmets , Open pick-up trucks loaded with people in the back , Drunk drivers and many posting on social media showing beer and whiskey , ALL THE TIME !! 

That's how they do things around here bro. Get used to it or spend the rest of your life getting het up about it. Howling at the moon and flapping your arms around ain't going to change things here one iota.

[Lemsta69]

40 minutes ago, madmitch said:

Let's hope that Thailand elects a Government that will get rid of ridiculous laws like these. 

Be careful what you wish for, a "new" government could go even more conservative. Old moon face was big on that wasn't he?

[Lemsta69]

3 minutes ago, akaika said:

There are many countries that have had to challenge laws that affect home brewing and craft brewing.  What is unique here, (beyond unique 'bizarre' is more accurate), is that the violation was about advertising/promoting drinking.  It is of course a maze of bureaucracy to legally produce alcohol for sale in Thailand but it can be done.  Only one place comes to mind where the advertising/publicizing of it was the specific legal impediment; Japan.  In 1990 there were fewer than 10 microbreweries because the use of the terms, "beer" "brew" "malt" were strictly prohibited except for the few major companies.  There was a 'substitute' word "Happōshu"  which only meant low malt but there was no reason they needed to actually lower the malt content and so it soon became a kind of 'code' that this was craft beer.  By 2000 when the laws started to change, there was over 300 Japanese craft brewers at the International beer show in Tokyo.

If anyone has followed this person's efforts they will know that he has actually made serious progress collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures and even having the judicial prosecutors tell him (after his conviction) that they feel he is justified in his efforts (maybe they like craft beer).
 

I'll sign said petition if it will bring the beer pretties back! ????

[PeeJayEm]

Thailand's alcohol advertising laws and penalties for breach of them are not at

all out of step or overdone.  In UK the penalty is an unlimited fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years.

 

Seems most if not all posts here are against the legislation. Could there be a bias of alchies or at least heavy drinkers here living in ignorance or denial of the harm the stuff does to individuals, families and society.

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Nonthaburi Provincial Court ruled on Friday that Artid Sivahansaphan’s beer review violated Section 32 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (2008) which prohibits, “advertising or displaying, directly or indirectly, the name or trademark of any alcoholic beverage.” Breaking this law carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a 500,000 baht fine.

Complete and utter madness.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, phetphet said:

What about those beer girls in their beer dresses and the beer table mats etc? Isn't all that a form of advertising?

Yes but they are funded by the breweries.. who in turn fund certain entities.

Nothing is done.

[rwill]

10 hours ago, phetphet said:

What about those beer girls in their beer dresses and the beer table mats etc? Isn't all that a form of advertising?

Advertising is legal using the company logo but not images of the actual product.  That includes showing boxes of the product too.

[TheFishman1]

It just shows you how powerful the beer monopoly is in Thailand, TIT

[Dukeleto]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Let's hope that Thailand elects a Government that will get rid of ridiculous laws like these. 

Even if you were immortal you still wouldn’t see that day! Sadly.

[Lemsta69]

10 hours ago, phetphet said:

What about those beer girls in their beer dresses

Where have you encountered this? I haven't seen beer pretties for ages. Pretty sure I read on here years ago that they are verboten, just like that Thai singer that twerked too much and got scolded by the PM. 

[Lemsta69]

8 minutes ago, TheFishman1 said:

It just shows you how powerful the beer monopoly is in Thailand, TIT

Duopoly.

[ikke1959]

Medieval Thailand want to be the best country in the 21st century...Alcohol bans, advertising forbidden, but in the meantime go to a concert and see how much advertising there is with their umbrellas, hostesses etc.. but that is no problem, as it is no problem to drive drunk in Thailand...  

[Srikcir]

Artid might consider a second legal opinion before appealing.

Courts uphold the law in general and in Thailand not bound by precedent. Unless the subject law was passed in violation of legislative process or otherwise ruled unconstitutional, the court will uphold the subject law, Artid's fine and suspended sentence will be upheld. 

But maybe Artid might consider the fine as the cost for national advertising for his Facebook site?

 

[kwan]