Is it permissible to use medicine as promoted products in Vietnam?

Is it permissible to use medicine as promoted products in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 5 of the Decree 81/2018/NĐ-CP, promoted product or promotional product must comply with regulations of the Commercial Law and the following regulations:

1. Promoted products must not include wines, lottery, cigarettes, breast milk substitutes, medicines for human use including those permitted for circulation as regulated by the Ministry of Health (except for the case in which sales promotion is dedicated to traders involved in medicine trading), examination and treatment service of public medical facilities, education service provided by public educational facilities or public vocational training facilities, goods and services that have been banned from circulation in Vietnam and other goods and services prohibited from sales promotion as required by laws.

2. Promotional products must not include wines, lottery, cigarettes, curative medicines for human use including those permitted for circulation as regulated by the Ministry of Health (except for the case in which sales promotion is dedicated to traders involved in drug trading), goods and services that have been banned from circulation in Vietnam and other goods and services prohibited from sales promotion as required by laws.

3. Money can also be used as promotional merchandise, except for sales promotion conducted in the forms prescribed in Article 8, 10 and 11 of this Decree. 

As regulations above, your enterprise are not permissible to use medicine as promoted product or promotional product in Vietnam (except for the case in which sales promotion is dedicated to traders involved in medicine trading).

What are principles of sales promotion in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 3 of the Decree 81/2018/NĐ-CP, promoted principles of sales promotion in Vietnam:

1. Sales promotion program must be implemented in a lawful, honest, public and transparent manner and must not harm legitimate rights and benefits of consumers, other traders, organizations or individuals.

2. The trader doing sales promotion must enable the winners to receive prizes and take responsibility to handle complaints (if any) regarding the sales promotion program.

3. The trader doing sales promotion must guarantee the quality of goods and services that are target of the sales promotion (hereinafter referred to as ‘promoted product”) and goods and services used for sales promotion (hereinafter referred to as ‘promotional product”).

4. Sales promotion must ensure:

a) Customers are not required to give up, refuse or exchange goods and services of other traders or organizations;

b) The trader doing sales promotion must not directly make comparisons of their goods and services to those of other traders, organizations or individuals.

5. The lottery results must not be used as a foundation to determine the prize winner or to present and reward bonuses in sale promotion program in the forms prescribed in Claus 5, 6 and 9 in Article 92 of the Commercial Law.

Best regards!