Severe fines for advertising email/message/call services in Vietnam from October 01, 2020

Article 32 of the Decree No. 91/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government supplements Points c, d, dd to Clause 2; Points p, q, r, s to Clause 4; Points e, g to Clause 6; Point c to Clause 10 of Article 94; Clause 7a to Article 94 of the Decree No. 15/2020/NĐ-CP dated February 03, 2020 on administrative penalties for violations against regulations on postal services, telecommunications, radio frequencies, information technology and electronic transactions. Thus, from October 10, 2020, violations against regulations on emails and messages providing product/service-related information shall be fined severely, specifically as follows:

- A fine ranging from VND 1,000,000 to VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed for providing contact telephone numbers on advertising boards hung, placed or glued, or drawing advertising products on utility poles, traffic signal poles, walls, trees or in public places.

- A fine ranging from VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

+ Sending promotional emails/messages to recipients without their content;

+ Improperly or insufficiently labeling promotional emails/messages as prescribed;

+ Making advertising calls to users without their clear prior consent;

+ Making advertising calls to users who have unsubscribed to advertising calls;

+ Sending opt-in message after the user has refused or does not response.

- A fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

+ Failing to label promotional emails/messages as prescribed;

+ Failing to retain information on registration of receipt of promotional emails/messages, refusals to receive promotional emails/messages and confirmations thereof;

+ Sending promotional emails/messages or online messages before obtaining a management code or using a management code other than the one granted by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

- A fine ranging from VND 20,000,000 to VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

+ Failing to provide free of charge mechanism for receiving and handling notifications of spam emails;

+ Failing to adopt measures to prevent loss and wrong blocking of emails of service users;

+ Failing to cooperate with domestic and foreign Internet service providers/domestic and foreign messaging service providers in mitigating and preventing spam emails;

+ Failing to immediately reply to or failing to comply with statutory requirements for replying to refusals to receive emails/messages;

+ Failing to adopt measures for limiting the messaging quantity, speed and frequency;

+ Failing to limit the messaging frequency from each source or failing to prevent messages prone to cause information insecurity as prescribed;

+ Failing to send copies of contents of promotional emails or messages which have been sent to clients to the technical system of Ministry of Information and Communications;

+ Hiding email name/address when sending emails/messages;

+ Failing to stop sending promotional emails/messages to recipients immediately after receiving their requests for refusal to receive such promotional emails/messages;

+ Failing to cooperate with domestic and foreign mobile telecommunications service providers in preventing spam messages;

+ Failing to implement measures for preventing spam messages at the request of a competent authority;

+ Failing to prevent spam messages with forged sender addresses before sending them to end service users;

+ Failing to stop providing message-based content services at the request of clients;

+ Failing to fully implement requests for coordination, prevention and handling of spam messages.

+ Making more than 01 advertising call to 01 phone number within 24 hours unless otherwise agreed by the user;

+ Making advertising calls outside the 08:00 – 17:00 period unless otherwise agreed by the user;

+ Failure to verify users’ prior consents when sending advertising messages, advertising emails or making advertising calls;

+ Failure to provide users with tools to access or retain agreements on subscribing and unsubscribing from advertising calls and opt-in messages on the website/web portal to facilitate inspection and complaint settlement.

- A fine ranging from VND 30,000,000 to VND 40,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

+ Failing to comply with requests for coordination, prevention and handling of spam messages;

+ Failing to comply with requests for handling of notifications/reports on spam messages given by the Ministry of Information and Communications;

+ Failing to implement measures for reducing spam emails at the request of a competent authority;

+ Failing to provide information on and block sources of spam emails or malware at the request of a state authority;

+ A messaging service provider’s failure to implement measures for evaluating the state of spam messages over mobile telecommunications networks according to guidelines given by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

- A fine ranging from VND 60,000,000 to VND 80,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

+ Failing to provide adequate methods for refusal to receive promotional emails or messages;

+ Sending or spreading spam emails, spam messages and/or malware;

+ Creating a series of missed calls to entice users to make calls or send messages to numbers providing content services for personal gains or providing promotional information;

+ Operating or using service numbers or subscriber numbers for wrong purposes;

+ Opening the function to dial, send/receive messages of toll-free service numbers/premium-rate service numbers.

+ Sending opt-in messages against regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communications;

+ Sending an opt-in message to any phone number on the Do-Not-Call Register.

- A fine ranging from VND 80,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 shall be imposed for failing to establish a system for receiving and handling refusal requests of recipients when sending promotional emails or messages or providing Internet-based messaging services.

- A fine ranging from VND 80,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 shall be imposed for sending advertising messages or making advertising calls to any of the phone number on the Do-Not-Call Register.

- A fine ranging from VND 180,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 shall be imposed for failing to block or take back subscriber numbers which are used to send spam messages.

Moreover, for some violations, the provision of services shall be suspended for a fixed period of 01 – 03 months or the rights to use management codes/names shall be revoked for a fixed period of 01 – 03 months.

View more details at the Decree No. 91/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, issued on August 14, 2020.

Le Vy

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