On 26 September 2019, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 75/2019/ND-CP on administrative sanction in terms of competition laws. This Decree comes into effect and replaces Decree No. 71/2014/ND-CP from 01 December 2019.
Decree No. 75/2019/ND-CP provides several new regulations in comparison to its predecessor, in particular:
Maximum fine level for violations of regulations on anti-competitive agreement, abuse of dominant market position and abuse of monopoly position.
Decree No. 75/2019/ND-CP does not change the maximum fine level of 10% of the total revenue in the fiscal year preceding the violation year of violating enterprise.
However, the Decree further provides that this maximum fine could not exceed the minimum fine specified in Criminal Code 2015 (amended and supplemented in 2017). According to this Criminal Code, the minimum fine level is VND 1,000,000,000 or 3,000,000,000 depending on the violation form and the extent of arisen damage.
Maximum fine level for violations of economic concentration regulations.
Decree No. 71/2014/ND-CP provides that the maximum fine level for economic concentration regulations is 10% of the total revenue in the fiscal year preceding the violation year of violating enterprise while Decree No. 75/2019/ND-CP stipulates another fine level of 5%.
Determination of a specific fine in case the violating enterprises in the relevant market has revenue of zero in the fiscal year preceding the year of violating.
It is true that violating enterprise might not have any revenue in the fiscal year preceding the year of violating. Therefore, Decree 75/2019/ND-CP has solved this problem that its predecessor overlooked. In particular, the new Decree stipulates that the fine in this case will range from VND 100,000,000 to VND 200,000,000.
Decree No. 75/2019/ND-CP sets out many detailed regulations about maximum fines for competition law violation, contributing to prior assessment of financial risk (i.e fines) of enterprises when they conducts competitive practices in the market.