Fine of 200 million for providing paid television services without a license in Vietnam

Fine of 200 million for providing paid television services without a license in Vietnam (Illustrative photo)

Article 17 Decree 119/2020/ND-CP stipulates the fines for violations in broadcasting management and supply as follows:

- A fine ranging from 30,000,000 VND to 50,000,000 VND shall be imposed for the following acts:

+ Failure to comply with provisions in the broadcasting license;

+ The number of foreign channels exceeds 30 percent of total content;

+ Failure to provide channels serving national political missions and essential propaganda for all pay television subscribers as prescribed;

+ Failure to provide channels serving local political missions and essential propaganda to all television subscribers in the locality where the broadcaster provides services as prescribed;

+ Providing the service with quality lower than the declared service quality level;

+ Pre-install the application on user's terminal equipment to help access broadcasting in contravention of law;

+ Providing channels on pay broadcasting without the certificate of registration for the list of channels of broadcasting;

+ Provide on-demand content and value-added content that have not been edited as prescribed;

+ Providing channels and program contents on pay broadcasting without a legal copyright agreement with the content owner.

- A fine ranging from 50,000,000 VND to 70,000,000 VND shall be imposed for the following acts:

+ Providing the commercials pre-installed from abroad in foreign channels;

+ Failure to transmit the program contents or channels in full provided by the content provider to broadcasting subscribers;

+ Providing foreign channels on pay broadcasting without being edited or translated as prescribed;

+ Selling, transferring, leasing, or lending the broadcasting license in any form;

+ Provide foreign channels on public broadcasting;

+ Providing on-demand service packages and value-added services on the broadcasting.

- A fine ranging from 70,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND shall be imposed for the following acts:

+ Providing on broadcasting the domestic channels without a license to produce domestic channels as prescribed;

+ Providing the programs and channels on broadcasting with contents that are not posted in the press, not allowed to be circulated, banned or subject to the confiscation decision;

+ Providing the foreign-invested pay broadcasting without the Prime Minister's approval;

+ Providing programs or channels to the broadcasting provider without the permission of the content owner or in contravention of authorization made by the agency or organization that owns the authorized content.

- A fine ranging from 150,000,000 VND to 200,000,000 VND shall be imposed for the following acts:

+ Providing pay broadcasting without a license;

+ Providing the programs and channels on pay broadcasting with contents that affects national interests but not to the extent where criminal prosecution is needed.

More details can be found in Decree 119/2020/ND-CP, which comes into force in Vietnam from December 1, 2020.

Le Vy

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