Heavy fines for providing discotheque services to people under the age of 18 in Vietnam

Vietnam: To impose fines of up to 15 million VND for providing discotheque services to people under 18 years old (Artwork)

Previously, in Article 8 of Vietnam's Decree 54/2019/ND-CP, one of the responsibilities of enterprises and business households when providing discotheque services is "Not providing discotheque services to people who are not 18 years old".

According to Vietnam's Decree 38/2021/ND-CP, a fine for enterprises and households operating in discotheque services in violation of the aforesaid regulations has been set forth. Therefore, in case enterprises and households provide discotheque services to persons under 18 years old, they will be subject to a fine of between VND 10,000,000 and 15,000,000. Specifically, this provision is mentioned at Point a, Clause 5, Article 15 of Decree 38 as follows:

Article 15. Violations against regulations on karaoke and discotheque service business

5. Imposing the fine ranging from 10,000,000 dong to 15,000,000 dong for one of the following violations:

a) Providing discotheque services for persons aged under 18 years;

In addition, Decree 38/2021/ND-CP also stipulates the fine levels for violations against regulations on karaoke and discotheque service business

(1) Imposing the penalty in the form of a warning or a fine of between 200,000 dong and 500,000 dong for the act of failure to wear costumes or name plates provided by employers.

(2) Imposing the penalty in the form of a fine of between 500,000 dong and 1,000.000 dong for the act of failure to wear costumes or name plates provided by employers.

(3) Imposing the fine ranging from 1,000,000 dong to 5,000,000 dong for the act of failure to submit certificates of conformance to karaoke or discotheque service business regulations upon receipt of revocation decisions from competent state authorities.

(4) Imposing the fine ranging from 5,000,000 dong to 10.000.000 dong for the act of making untruthful declarations in applications for certificates of conformance to karaoke or discotheque service business regulations.

(5) Imposing the fine ranging from 10,000,000 dong to 15,000,000 dong for one of the following violations:

- Providing discotheque services for persons aged under 18 years;

- Rendering karaoke services outside the legitimate time frame from 8:00 to 24:00 each day;

- Modifying, erasing, deleting, adding or changing information contained in certificates of conformance to karaoke and discotheque service business regulations.

(6) Imposing the fine ranging from 15,000,000 dong to 20,000,000 dong for one of the following violations:

- Rendering karaoke and discotheque services though prescribed dimensional requirements are not met;

- Mounting door latches inside karaoke or disco ballrooms;

- Installing alarm equipment, except for fire and explosion detection systems at the places where karaoke and discotheque services are rendered;

- Failing to make photos duly fit with the lyrics shown on karaoke screens (or in other similar forms) or with the culture, moral value and fine customs of the Vietnamese people in each karaoke room;

- Failing to adjust certificates of conformance to karaoke or discotheque service business regulations in case of changing the number of rooms or owners;

- Opening discotheques outside the legitimate time frame from 02:00 to 8:00 each day;

- Running discotheque service business at locations less than 200 meters away from schools, hospitals, religious and belief establishments, historical-cultural relics.

(7) Imposing the fine ranging from 20,000,000 dong to 25,000,000 dong for one of the following violations:

- Rendering karaoke services without licenses or permits that are legally required;

- Using certificates of conformance to karaoke service business regulations held by other organizations or individuals for business purposes;

- Letting other organizations or individuals use certificates of conformance to karaoke service business regulations for business purposes.

(8) Imposing the fine ranging from 25,000,000 dong to 30,000,000 dong for one of the following violations:

- Rendering discotheque services without licenses or permits that are legally required;

- Using certificates of conformance to discotheque service business regulations held by other organizations or individuals for business purposes;

- Letting other organizations or individuals use certificates of conformance to discotheque service business regulations for business purposes.

For details, see: Vietnam's Decree 38/2021/ND-CP takes effect from June 1, 2021.

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