On 20 June 2023, the National Assembly (NA) passed the Law on Protection of Consumers’’ Rights (amended), with an effective date of 1 July 2024, superseding the current Law on the Protection of Consumers’’ Rights No. 59/2010/QH12.

The New LPCR includes seven Chapters and 80 articles under which many proposed critical changes have been officially adopted. This law also addresses various issues that will have direct impacts on onshore and offshore organizations that transact or do business with consumers in Vietnam.

On 23 June 2023, the National Assembly passed the Law on e-Transactions (amended), replacing the current Law on e-Transactions No. 51/2005/QH11. The new law includes seven chapters and 54 articles addressing various issues that will directly impact both onshore and offshore businesses that transact with consumers in Vietnam. It will come into force on 1 July 2024.

Vietnam is releasing a brand-new draft decree superseding Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP (as amended) on the management, provision and use of internet services and online information.

On 30 June 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued two circulars, Circular No. 05/2023/TT-BTTTT and Circular No. 06/2023/TT-BTTTT, to guide the implementation of Government’s Decree No. 06/2016/ND-CP, as recently amended (by Decree No. 71/2022/ND-CP).

To enforce (i) Decree 53 guiding the Cybersecurity Law and (ii) the Personal Data Protection Decree (i.e., Decree 13), the Ministry of Public Security has been working on a draft Cybersecurity Administrative Sanctions Decree.

At its 21st session (from 15 March to 20 March 2023), the National Assembly Standing Committee of Vietnam (NASC) considered and gave remarks on a number of essential draft legislation to be passed this year.

The public consultation round for the draft Law on Citizen Identification has recently ended. Among other objectives, the Draft Law aims at supplementing and integrating more citizen data into the National Database on Population so that Citizen ID Cards and the National e-Identification Application can be utilized more in both public services and private transactions, gradually cutting red tape.

At the 20th working session, which took place from 13 February 2023 – 15 February 2023, the National Assembly Standing Committee of Vietnam considered and decided on a number of important issues, including: the draft Law on Protection of Consumer Rights, the draft Law on Electronic Transactions and the draft Decree on Personal Data Protection.

In the period between 2020 and 2022, the new Law on Environmental Protection and its guiding Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP were promulgated, providing a fundamental legal framework for extended producer responsibility (EPR). EPR-related regulations impose a number of obligations on manufacturers and importers of certain types of products and packaging in Vietnam. Nonetheless, the EPR legal framework is not yet complete.

With the enactment of the new Cinema Law 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) is developing a draft decree guiding the Cinema Law. After a one-month public consultation period, the MOCST made substantial updates to the Draft Decree and submitted the latest version to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal. The content of the latest version reflects the majority of the comments and recommendations suggested by industry stakeholders, evidencing how effective and influential policy advocacy can be.