In September 2019, the Government issued new Decree 75/2019 providing administrative sanctions regarding violation of the Vietnam new competition law. Decree 75/2019 details violation in competition including violation of (a) competition-restricting agreements, (b) abuse of a dominant market position or monopoly position; (c) economic concentration; and (d) unfair competitive practices. Set out below are some notable changes in Decree 75/2019:

·         The maximum penalty for violations of unfair competition is increased from VND 200 million to  VND 2 billion;

·         The maximum penalty for violations of economic concentration is decreased from 10% of total revenue of violating enterprise to 5% of total revenue of the violating enterprise in the relevant market;

·         Acts of competition-restricting agreement of enterprises doing business in different stages of the same chain of production, distribution or supply of a certain type of goods or services is now considered violation of competition regulations;

·         Failure to satisfy conditions and/or procedures for carrying out economic concentration in accordance with Competition Law 2018 is now considered violation of competition regulations;

·         New types of violation of unfair competition regulation include illegally enticing customers from other enterprises and selling goods or providing services below costs;

·         Providing information for or campaigning, inciting, coercing or enabling enterprise to engage in competition restriction or unfair competition is now considered violation of competition regulations; and

·         Decree 75/2019 removes penalties applicable to unfair competitive acts in intellectual property, multi-level marketing, advertising and promotions which are specified under other laws.

This post is written by Le Minh Thuy and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.