Section 379: Penalty clause: forfeiture on default or non-performance
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าลูกหนี้สัญญาแก่เจ้าหนี้ว่าจะใช้เงินจำนวนหนึ่งเป็นเบี้ยปรับเมื่อตนไม่ชำระหนี้ก็ดี หรือไม่ชำระหนี้ให้ถูกต้องสมควรก็ดี เมื่อลูกหนี้ผิดนัด ก็ให้ริบเบี้ยปรับ ถ้าการชำระหนี้อันจะพึงทำนั้นได้แก่งดเว้นการอันใดอันหนึ่ง หากทำการอันนั้นฝ่าฝืนมูลหนี้เมื่อใด ก็ให้ริบเบี้ยปรับเมื่อนั้น
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
If the debtor promises the creditor the payment of a sum of money as penalty in case he does not perform it in the proper manner, the penalty is forfeited if he is in default. If the performance due consist in a forbearance, the penalty is forfeited as soon as any act in contravention of the obligation is committed.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 379 is part of Book 2 (Obligations) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code. This entry is awaiting firm-authored commentary; the statutory text above is verbatim from the Office of the Council of State (OCS Krisdika) Thai source, with the English translation from the FAO/UN FAOLEX repository. Always rely on the Thai original for legal proceedings.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: a default-interest clause at an elevated rate is treated as a penalty and may be reduced under Section 383 if excessive. For laypersons: if you agree to pay extra interest if late, that clause is enforceable but a court can reduce it if it is unreasonably high.
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil and Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2623/2549 (2006)
A contractual default interest rate that exceeds the ordinary rate constitutes a penalty clause subject to judicial reduction under Sections 379 and 383.
An elevated default interest rate stipulated in a loan agreement was treated as a penalty under Sections 379 and 383; if disproportionately high, the court may reduce it to a reasonable amount.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 147 Supreme Court decisions (1969 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 855/2567 (2024)
- Decision 3661/2566 (2023)
- Decision 3290/2566 (2023)
- Decision 1301/2566 (2023)
- Decision 1101/2566 (2023)
- Decision 4781/2565 (2022)
- Decision 4587/2565 (2022)
- Decision 5065/2563 (2020)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 383 105
- Thai CPC s. 223 bis 39
- Section 224 15
- Section 391 15
- Section 148 14
- Thai CPC s. 142 12
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 379 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 379. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-379/ (accessed 28 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 379 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-379/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-379/"><p>If the debtor promises the creditor the payment of a sum of money as penalty in case he does not perform it in the proper manner, the penalty is forfeited if he is in default. If the performance due consist in a forbearance, the penalty…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 379 (Thailand): <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-379/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.