On the 12th of June 2018, the Law on Competition No. 23/2018/QH14 (Competition Law 2018) was issued by the Vietnam National Assembly and shall replace the current Competition Law No. 27/2004/QH11 (Competition Law 2004) on the 1^st day of July 2019. It means that, enterprises and other subjects of application of this new Law shall have approximately one year to prepare for the application and compliance with the Competition Law 2018.

After more than twelve years in force, the Competition Law 2004 needs revising and supplementing in order to: (i) meet the requirements of the trend in economic integration and comply with international commitments; (ii) be appropriate with the current situation of domestic business environment; and (iii) recover unsound regulations.

The Competition Law 2018 sets forth anti-competitive practices, economic concentration that causes or may cause anti-competitive effects on the market of Vietnam; unfair competition practices; competition legal proceedings; sanctions against violations of competition law; and state management of competition.

With the expanded scope of regulation, Vietnamese authorities are capable of handling the economic concentration activities which have happened outside of Vietnam but have an effect on Vietnam and cooperation with other countries’ authorities to comply with related international agreements. This Law has also expanded the subjects of application which include:

(i) Business organizations and individuals including enterprises that produce and provide public products and services, enterprises that operate in state-monopolized sectors, public sector entities and foreign enterprises that operate in Vietnam;

(ii) Industry associations operating in Vietnam; and

(iii) Relevant domestic and foreign agencies, organizations and individuals.

The Competition Law 2018 includes 10 chapters with 118 articles. The new Law:

1. Clearly stipulates and supplements the prohibited acts related to competition, particularly (Article 8);
2. Improves the management of anti-competitive agreements and supplements the leniency policy to enhance the effectiveness of the enforcement of competition laws (Article 111 and 112);
3. Supplements the articles of determination of substantial market power which is important to determine the enterprises/group of enterprises holding a dominant position (Article 26);
4. Removes the threshold of economic concentration. Instead of that, according to Article 30 of the Competition Law 2018, economic concentration shall be prohibited if it causes or probably cause substantial anti-competitive effects on the Vietnamese market;
5. Clarifies the Vietnamese authorities managing competition by establishing a National Competition Commission (Chapter 7);
6. Shortens and specifies the competition proceedings procedure (Section 4 Chapter 8); and
7. Supplements regulations on sanctions against violations of competition law (Chapter 9).

The Competition Law 2018 shall be effective from the 1^st day of July 2019. From now until before the new Law comes into effect, the Government shall have to elaborate and promulgate decrees detailing and guiding the implementation of the new Law. According to the Competition Law 2018, there are 13 areas for which the Governments shall have to set forth procedures or provide guidelines. Up to now, no information is available regarding the draft of these likely decrees.