Key Amendments to Vietnam Law on Advertising in 2025

In June 2025, the National Assembly adopted several amendments to existing 2012 Law on Advertising (Advertising Law Amendments 2025). The amended law will take effect from 1 January 2026. In this post, we discuss some of the material changes introduced by Advertising Law Amendments 2025. To offer a comprehensive perspective, we also include a summary generated by Google's Gemini AI for comparison and reference (see here).

New Carve-out To The Prohibition On Comparative Advertising

The Advertising Law Amendment 2025 allows comparative advertising between one’s own products/goods/services and those of other entities of the same kind when there is “legitimate supporting documentation”. Before this, all comparative advertising was prohibited. The new carved out opens the door for lawful and transparent comparative advertising.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On

Key Changes In New Draft Business Investment Law 2025

The Ministry of Finance has recently collected opinions on a new draft of the Business Investment Law, which proposes certain changes to the current Investment Law 2020. The draft law is expected to take effect from 1 July 2026. We discuss some key changes proposed in the draft Business Investment Law.

Lack of bold reforms directed by the Politburo  

Earlier this year, the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the highest decision- making authority in Vietnam) issued Resolution 68/2025 on developing the private business sector. At the time, Resolution 68 was widely reported as a bold move to start a “new dawn” for Vietnam private business sector (see here for example). Following Resolution 68, the National Assembly duly issued Resolution 198/2025 to make Resolution 68 the law of the land. However, since Resolution 198/2025 simply copied and pasted from the text of Resolution 68, it is difficult to know how the instructions and reforms directed by the Politburo are to be implemented in practice. The National Assembly nevertheless requires complete changes to the “investment law” to implement the instructions from the Politburo by December 2025 which includes a reduction of at least 30% of business conditions.

One would expect that the amendments to the Investment Law will provide further implementation and guidance to Resolution 198/2025. However, it appears this is not the case. For example, the new draft Business Investment Law has 212 areas of conditional business a reduction of mere 10% (not 30%). The new draft Business Investment Law retains  the investment licensing procedures introduced 30 years ago under the Foreign Investment Law 1987 with some unclear tinkering.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In

Key Changes to the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents

Shortly after the issuance of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents early this year, on 25 June 2025, it enacted a law amending such law (the Amending Law) (collectively known as the Law on Law 2025). Below are the key changes:

1. Enhancing certainty

1.1. A crucial reform for legal certainty is the revised provision on effectiveness for guiding documents. Under the Amending Law, when a parent law is replaced or expires, any documents issued to detail it (such as decrees) will now automatically expire as well. They will only remain in effect if a state agency makes a formal, public announcement that they will continue.

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Vietnam's Employment Law 2025: What Employers and Employees Need to Know

On 16 June 2025, the National Assembly of Vietnam officially passed the Employment Law 2025, replacing the Employment Law 2013. The new law will take effect on 1 January 2026. Among its most significant revisions are changes to unemployment insurance (UI) regulations, aimed at expanding coverage, increasing benefits, and clarifying the responsibilities of both employers and employees. This article summarizes the most notable updates to Vietnam’s unemployment insurance system and other key changes under the new Employment Law 2025.

1. Major Changes to the Unemployment Insurance System

·       Broader Scope of Participants: The Employment Law 2025 broadens the scope of mandatory UI participation to include (1) employees with labor contracts of at least one month and (2) part-time employees under similar contracts whose monthly salary exceeds the minimum wage.

·       Additional Exclusions: The Employment Law 2025 now excludes the following groups from UI participation: (1) employees who meet the conditions for receiving retirement pensions (not just those already receiving them, as under the 2013 Law), (2) employees receiving other social insurance benefits or monthly government allowances, and (3) employees on probationary contracts. The new law also broadens the situations where UI contributions are not required. Now, employees who do not receive a salary for 14 working days or more in a month will not be subject to UI contributions. (Previously, under Decree 28/2015, this only applied to those on maternity or sick leave for that duration).

·       Contribution Rates and Salary Basis: The UI contribution rate is set at a maximum of 1% of the employee’s monthly salary, giving the government flexibility to adjust the rate below this ceiling if needed. The salary basis for UI contributions now includes the monthly salary plus any allowances or other regular additional payments. This is a change from the Employment Law 2013, which based UI contributions only on the salary used for social insurance.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In