New regulations on e-commerce activities in Vietnam

In September 2021, the Government issued Decree 85/2021 amending and supplementing some articles of Decree 52/2013 on e-commerce (the E-Commerce Decree). Decree 85/2021 will take effect from 1 January 2022 with substantial changes on the conditions applicable to foreign investors in e-commerce sector. We discuss below some notable new provisions under Decree 85/2021.

A pdf version is here.

Adjustment in the scope of application

Several business sectors are excluded from the scope of application of E-Commerce Decree if the specialised laws of such sectors have regulations on e-commerce. Such sectors (the Excluded Sectors) include financial, banking, credit, insurance, and lottery services; trading and exchange of money, gold, foreign exchange, and other payment means; betting services or games of chance; services of distribution, issuance of digital content products, radio and television broadcasting services. The entities and individual having e-commerce activities must be careful when determining whether the relevant specialized laws of its business have regulations on e-commerce.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

IMPORTING LNG FOR LNG POWER PLANT

1. Pursuant to Article 6 of Decree 87 of the Government dated 13 March 2018 on gas trading (Decree 87), an entity involving in the import of LNG for trading in Vietnam needs to obtain a certificate on satisfaction of conditions applicable to LNG importing/exporting merchant (Import Certificate) from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) before doing such activity.

2. The requirements of Decree 87/2018 seem to be drafted with entities importing LNG to trade in Vietnam in mind, but not for own consumption purpose, for example, a LNG power plant (LNG Power Plant) imports LNG to turn it into power. That said, if the LNG Power Plant imports LNG for own consumption purpose, it is advisable to apply for the Import Certificate because (i) there are no specific regulations guiding how to import LNG for own consumption purpose and (ii) the conditions to issue the Import Certificate set out in Decree 87/2018 mainly focus to ensure the safety of the LNG import activities.

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Written by Lawyers VNLaw On In ,

Draft New Decree on Personal Data Protection in Vietnam

On 9 February 2021, the Ministry of Public Security issued a draft decree on the protection of personal data (Draft Decree). This decree, once enacted, will be the first comprehensive legislation of Vietnam on personal data. This blog will analyze some key points of the Draft Decree and compare them with the relevant provisions under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This post is written by Nguyen Thu Giang and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu. Please download the pdf version here.

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Written by Nguyen Quang Vu On In ,

New Decree 31/2021 guiding the implementation of the Investment Law 2020 on the Market Entry of Foreign Investors

The Government has issued Decree 31/2021/ND-CP (Decree 31/2021) which becomes effective on the signing date, 26 March 2021. Decree 31/2021 provides certain appreciable provisions guiding the negative list approach and the application of market entry conditions of the Investment Law 2020. These implementing provisions (as discussed in this post) are expected to provide more certainty and transparency to foreign investors.

This post is written by Ha Thi Dung.

Please download the full pdf version Here

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