Thailand’s Central Administrative Court has agreed to consider a petition challenging the legitimacy of the decision by the telecom regulator conditionally approving the True-DTAC merger plan.

The petition was filed by Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) and signed by more than 2,000 consumers. It claims that the October 20^th decision by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to endorse the merger between True Corporation and Total Access Telecommunications (DTAC) is illegal, because they had not sought the opinions of consumers.

The TCC also contends that the NBTC’s decision goes against its own regulations regarding meetings of the board.

The commission was evenly split on the merger plan, prompting the board chairman to cast a deciding vote to approve the merger plan.

In the same petition, the Central Administrative Court was asked to issue an injunction, to put the merger plan on hold.

The court said, however, that it would not issue an injunction until True Corporation and DTAC have submitted their rebuttals.

The merger will increase the combined market share of True and DTAC to 56%, against their rival Advanced Info Services’ (AIS) 44%.