To amend 18 administrative procedures on competition and commercial services in Vietnam

To amend 18 administrative procedures on competition and commercial services in Vietnam (Internet image)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam issued Decision 608/QD-BCT dated March 9, 2023 on the publication of revised and supplemented administrative procedures in the field of competition management and commercial services under the management functions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

To amend 18 administrative procedures on competition and commercial services in Vietnam

According to Decision 608/QD-BCT, 18 administrative procedures on competition and commercial services are amended as follows:

* For administrative procedures on competition, central-level commercial services are performed by the National Competition Commission

(1) Economic concentration announcement

(2) Request for exemption from anti-competitive agreement

(3) Registration of contracts according to the form, general transaction conditions under the authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade

(4) Procedures for issuance of a certificate of registration of multi-level marketing

(5) Procedures for amending and supplementing the Certificate of registration of multi-level marketing

(6) Procedures for notification of changes to the list of goods traded under the multi-level method

(7) Procedures for re-issuance of the certificate of registration of multi-level selling activities

(8) Procedures for Renewal of Certificate of registration of multi-level marketing

(9) Procedures for termination of multi-level selling activities

(10) Procedures for Accreditation of the legal knowledge training program on multi-level marketing

(11) Certification of legal knowledge on multi-level selling

(12) Deposit withdrawal

(13) Handling of deposited funds

* For administrative procedures on competition, provincial-level commercial services performed by the Department of Industry and Trade:

(14) Registering local multi-level selling activities

(15) Procedures for registration of amendments and supplements to local multi-level selling activities

(16) Termination of local multi-level selling activities

(17) Announcement of organizing conferences, seminars, and training on multi-level selling

(18) Registration of contracts according to the form, general transaction conditions under the authority of the Department of Industry and Trade

Prohibited acts related to competition in Vietnam

According to Article 8 of the Competition Law 2018, prohibited acts related to competition include:

- State agencies are prohibited from performing the following acts to prevent competition on the market:

+ Forcing, requesting, recommending enterprises, organizations or individuals to or not to buy, sell specific products, provide services or from/to specific enterprises, except for products and services in state-monopolized domains or in emergency cases prescribed by law;

+ Discriminating among enterprises;

+ Forcing, requesting, recommending industry associations, social-occupational organizations or enterprises to associate with one another with a view to restrain competition on the market;

+ Taking advantage of their positions and powers to illegally intervene the competition.

- Organizations, individuals are prohibited from providing information, mobilizing, encouraging, coercing or enabling enterprises to engage in anti-competitive practices or unfair competition.

State’s policies on competition in Vietnam

Specifically, in Article 6 of the Competition Law 2018, state’s policies on competition as follows:

- Create and maintain healthy, fair, and transparent competition environment.

- Promote competition, ensure right to freedom of competition in business accordance with legal provisions.

- Enhance accessibility to market, improve efficiency, social welfares and protect consumers’ interests.

- Enable society and consumers to oversee the implementation of competition law.

Decision 608/QD-BCT takes effect from April 1, 2023.

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