Section 271: Deceptive sale of goods
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดขายของโดยหลอกลวงด้วยประการใด ๆ ให้ผู้ซื้อหลงเชื่อในแหล่งกำเนิด สภาพ คุณภาพหรือปริมาณแห่งของนั้นอันเป็นเท็จ ถ้าการกระทำนั้นไม่เป็นความผิดฐานฉ้อโกง ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสามปี หรือปรับไม่เกินหกหมื่นบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๘ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever sells goods by any deceptive means causing the buyer to believe falsely in the origin, condition, quality, or quantity of those goods, if the act does not constitute the offence of fraud, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding three years, or a fine not exceeding sixty thousand baht, or both.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 271 is a trade offence protecting buyers against commercial deception that falls short of fraud. Its elements are: (1) selling goods; (2) by deceptive means causing the buyer to believe falsely in the origin, condition, quality, or quantity of the goods; and (3) a residual clause, that the act does not constitute the offence of fraud under Section 341. The fraud proviso makes Section 271 subsidiary: where the deception induces the buyer to hand over property and causes loss in the manner of fraud, the heavier fraud offence applies instead. It sits at the head of the group of trade offences in Sections 271 to 275, which cover deceptive sales, counterfeit goods, and trademark-related conduct.
Why this matters in practice
Section 271 is the fallback where a seller misrepresents goods but the case does not squarely meet the elements of fraud, for example a misstatement of quality or origin without the full deception-and-loss pattern of Section 341. Because the offences in Sections 271 to 275 are trade offences, cases involving trademarks or imported goods are often heard by the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court. The residual fraud clause means charging strategy matters: prosecutors may plead fraud primarily and Section 271 in the alternative. A defendant should test whether the alleged statements were mere sales talk, were actually true, or whether the pleading adequately describes the deception. See our overview of fraud and scam laws in Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 2676/2565 (2022)
A charge under Section 271 for deceptive sale of goods is valid where the indictment describes the deceptive conduct sufficiently for the defendant to understand the accusation, satisfying the pleading requirements for a criminal complaint.
The defendant was prosecuted under Section 271 for deceptive sale of goods. The Intellectual Property and International Trade Court convicted and imposed six months imprisonment; the appellate court reversed and acquitted, and the case reached the Supreme Court on the sufficiency of the indictment describing the deceptive conduct.
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 13335/2555 (2012)
The Penal Code offences within the jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court are only those in Sections 271 to 275, the Title on Offences Relating to Trade, and do not extend to property offences such as defrauding creditors under Section 350.
The court held that the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court's authority over Penal Code offences covers only the trade offences in Sections 271 to 275, so a charge of defrauding creditors under Section 350, a property offence, fell outside its jurisdiction.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 29 Supreme Court decisions (1961 to 2022)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2676/2565 (2022)
- Decision 13335/2555 (2012)
- Decision 2451/2555 (2012)
- Decision 5017/2554 (2011)
- Decision 6081/2553 (2010)
- Decision 4432/2553 (2010)
- Decision 1255/2552 (2009)
- Decision 4816/2548 (2005)
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 91 13
- Section 272 12
- Section 33 10
- Section 83 9
- Section 29 8
- Section 30 8
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
Frequently asked questions
How is Section 271 different from fraud?
Section 271 is subsidiary to fraud. It applies to deceptive selling about origin, condition, quality, or quantity only where the act does not amount to fraud under Section 341. If the deception induces a transfer of property causing loss, fraud applies instead.
Which court hears deceptive sale cases involving trademarks?
Trade offences under Sections 271 to 275, including cases involving trademarks and international goods, may fall within the jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 271 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 271. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-271/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 271 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-271/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-271/"><p>Whoever sells goods by any deceptive means causing the buyer to believe falsely in the origin, condition, quality, or quantity of those goods, if the act does not constitute the offence of fraud, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding three years, or a fine…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 271 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-271/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.