Regulations on competition in the provision of telecommunications services in Vietnam? How to handle violations against regulations on competition in telecommunications sector?
Regulations on competition in the provision of telecommunications services in Vietnam?
According to the provisions of Article 19 of the 2009 Law on Telecommunications in Vietnam (Clause 6 of this Article is annulled by Clause 2, Article 116 of the 2018 Competition Law of Vietnam), telecommunications businesses may not take acts of competition suppression or unfair competition as specified in the Law on Competition.
In addition, telecommunications businesses or groups of telecommunications businesses that dominate the market and telecommunications businesses that possess essential devices shall refrain from taking the following acts:
+ Clearing telecommunications services among them for the unfair competition purpose:
+ Taking advantage of their telecommuni¬cations networks and essential devices to impede the market penetration or limit or cause troubles to provision of telecommunications services by other telecommunications businesses;
+ Using information obtained from other telecommunications businesses for the unfair competition purpose;
+ Failing to promptly provide to other telecommunications businesses technical information on essential devices and relevant commercial information necessary for the provision of telecommunications services.
Telecommunications businesses or groups of telecommunications businesses that dominate the market or telecommunications businesses that possess essential devices shall make statistics on and conducting separate accounting of telecommunications services with dominant market shares to determine costs of these telecommunications services.
In each period, the Ministry of Information and Communications shall promulgate a list of telecommunications businesses and groups of telecommunications businesses that dominate the market in important telecommunications services subject to competition management by the State, and a list of telecommunications businesses that possess essential devices; and devise and apply management measures to promote competition and assure fair competition in the provision of telecommunications services.
Before embarking on the economic concentration, telecommunications businesses that have combined market share of 30-50% on the relevant service market shall notify it to the specialized management agency in charge of telecommunications.
Regulations on competition in the provision of telecommunications services in Vietnam? How to handle violations against regulations on competition in telecommunications sector?
How to handle cases of competition in the telecommunication services trading?
According to the provisions of Article 6 of Decree No. 25/2011/ND-CP on handling cases of competition in the telecommunication services trading as follows:
- Competence and procedures for handling cases related to acts in restraint of competition, unfair competition in telecommunication services trading shall be as follows:
+ The management agencies specialized in telecommunications is obliged to dealing with competitive cases of setting up telecommunication networks, providing telecommunication services stipulated in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 19 of the Telecommunications Law.
+ Within 30 working days after receipt of competitive cases, the management agencies, which are specialized in telecommunications, take responsibility for making a decision to address competitive cases. The related parties are obliged to implement the decision of addressing competitive cases, including cases where they disagree to the decision of handling the competitive case by the management agency specialized in telecommunication and have the right to complain and take lawsuits under the provisions of law;
+ For complex competitive cases or cases involved in the function of numerous agencies, the specialized management agencies on telecommunications collect opinions in writing from those agencies before making the decision on the handling of competitive cases. Within 10 working days after receiving the specialized management agencies on telecommunications, the consulted agencies are obliged to respond in writing.
- Competence and procedures for handling the economic concentration in the telecommunication services trading shall be as follows:
+ For the economic concentration have a combined market share from 30% to 50% of a telecommunication services market, enterprises participating in economic concentration shall notify the management agency specialized in telecommunication and competition-management agencies before conducting before performing economic concentration. For the economic concentration have a combined market share over 50% of the market of telecommunication services, the Minister of Industry and Trade shall make a decision on approval of exemption after receiving a written approval of exemption by the Minister of Information and Communications;
+ Within 10 working days after receiving complete dossiers of application for exemption specified in Clause 1 of Article 29 of the Competition Law, the Ministry of Industry and Trade send the dossier to the Ministry of Information and Communications to get opinions. Within 20 working days from the date of receipt of application for exemption, the Ministry of Information and Communications subject to obligation of responding in writing to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
How to handle violations against regulations on competition in telecommunications sector?
According to the provisions of Article 26 of Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP on administrative handling when violating regulations on competition in the business of telecommunications services as follows:
- A fine ranging from VND 50,000,000 to VND 70,000,000 shall be imposed upon a telecommunications enterprise holding a dominant market position or holding essential facilities for failure to punctually provide other telecommunications enterprises with technical information concerning such essential facilities or commercial information necessary to provide services.
- A fine ranging from VND 70,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 shall be imposed upon a telecommunications enterprise holding a dominant market position or holding essential facilities for taking advantage in telecommunication network or such essential facilities to obstruct or cause difficulties to other telecommunications enterprises in implementing their market penetration strategies or providing telecommunications services.
- A fine ranging from VND 100,000,000 to VND 140,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:
+ Failing to obtain a written approval from the Ministry of Information and Communications before applying for exemptions/exceptions under regulations of the Competition Law;
+ Failing to send notification to the Ministry of Information and Communications before conducting the economic concentration with a combined market share of 30%-50% in relevant telecommunications services market.
- A fine ranging from VND 170,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:
+ Use of information obtained from other telecommunications enterprises by a telecommunications enterprise that holds a dominant market position or essential facilities for unfair competition purposes;
+ Practice of cross-subsidization by a telecommunications enterprise that holds a dominant market position or essential facilities for unfair competition.
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