Guidance on handling cases of competition in the telecommunication services trading in Vietnam

According to the Decree No. 25/2011/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, handling cases of competition in the telecommunication services trading is guided as follows:

1. 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 are obliged to deal with competitive cases of setting up telecommunication networks, providing telecommunication services stipulated in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 19 of the Telecommunications Law of Vietnam.

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.

2. Competence and procedures for handling the economic concentration in the telecommunication services trading shall be as follows:

For the economic concentration having 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 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 the obligation of responding in writing to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

View more details at the Decree No. 25/2011/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, effective from June 11, 2011.

Thuy Tram

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