Comprehensive Updates Coming for Vietnam's Advertising Law

As revealed by a notice on March 4, 2024, Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST) is soliciting public feedback on the revisions to Law No. 16/2012/QH13 on Advertising. The revisions aim to enhance regulations and address limitations in the current legal framework governing advertising activities.

The shortcomings of the existing law lie in but not limited to the following points: Firstly, it mainly focuses on the responsibilities of organizations and individuals trading goods and services, but doesn’t supervise individuals who convey advertising content. Therefore, the current law reveals limitations under the diverse development of advertising activities. For instance, with the rise of social media, influencers (especially famous celebrities) have begun advertising products, but there are no guarantees regarding the quality of their advertisements. Secondly, the law lacks specific rules for products and services that can directly impact human health and the environment. Additionally, the regulations do not align with the evolving advertising forms across various mediums, such as product placements in films.

Key Proposed Revisions

1. Mandatory information to be included in the advertising of special products

This draft revises regulations for advertising specific products, including foods, feeds, plant protection drugs, and more. Involved requirements for food products are listed as below. Please note that the following not new requirements, this draft officializes and consolidates the existing regulations scattering in other legal documents.

1. Food advertising content must have the following mandatory information: names of the foods and food additives, as well as the name and address of the organization or individual responsible for bringing the products to the market.

2. Advertising content for health protection foods (i.e., health supplements) must have the caution “This food is not a medicine and does not replace medicine”. The writing of this caution must be clear and have a color that contrasts with the background color.

3. Advertising on audio and video newspapers must clearly broadcast the caution as prescribed in Point b) above; Advertising on television and audio newspapers with a duration of less than 15 seconds does not require broadcast the warning, but the warning must be shown in the advertising content.

4. When advertising milk and nutritional products for young children and such advertising activity are not banned by Article 7, the advertising content must include the name of the dairy products and nutritional supplements for children, as well as the name and address of the organization or individual responsible for bringing the product to the market. In detail, Clause 4 of Article 7 bans the advertising of dairy as breast milk substitute for children under 24 months old, dietary supplements for children under 6 months old, as well as artificial feeding bottles and pacifiers.

2. Revised and supplemented requirements for advertising on different media

The requirements are revised and supplemented for advertising on different media, covering newspaper, audio & video newspaper, electronic newspaper, website, social networks, billboard, banner, advertising screen, etc. For example,

• For advertising on newspaper, the advertising area must not exceed 30% (instead of 15% in the current law) of the total area of a newspaper publication or 40% (20% in the current law) of the total area of a magazine publication, excluding newspapers and magazines specializing in advertising.

• Regarding the advertising in feature film, each television program or series episode with a duration under 30 minutes can be interrupted twice for advertising breaks; for every additional 15 minutes in the program's duration, there can be one more advertising break; each advertising break should not exceed 5 minutes.

• This draft clarifies that enterprises engaged in cross-border advertising activities must pay taxes in accordance with tax laws. Foreign organizations and individuals doing business in cross-border advertising services in Vietnam shall comply with certain obligations and can enjoy certain rights. For example, they shall notify the competent authority about certain information (e.g., organization name, head office address, etc.) as required. Procedure for managing cross-border advertising activities is also newly added.

3. More stringent requirements for influencers and people conveying advertising content

As per the draft, people conveying advertising content are newly subject to six rights and obligations. For instance, they will be directly responsible for advertising content related to the features, quality, uses and effects of products, goods and services. Besides, they should provide documents related to advertising products when requested by advertising recipients or competent state agencies.

New requirements are also raised specially for influencers. According to the draft, such people refer to influential people as prescribed in the Consumer Protection Law or people who own social network accounts on cross-border platforms with 500,000 or more followers or subscribers. Their advertising activities must satisfy three requirements. For example, when posting opinions or reviews about the use of goods and/or services on social media, there must be concrete evidence that they have directly used the products or services.

4. Others

In addition, this Draft proposes the following revisions:

• The responsibilities of the involved authorities, from MOCST and other ministry-level authorities, to people’s Committees at all levels, are detailed.

• Organizations and individuals can use the appraisal result got from Vietnam’s Advertisement Appraisal Council to advertise corresponding products and as a basis for resolving disputes and complaints. The Advertisement Appraisal Council is an advisory agency affiliated to MOCST, assisting in drawing conclusions about the advertising conformity to the law when stakeholders request the advertising appraisal.

• When advertising products, the descriptions must accurately represent the content to be conveyed, without giving rise to multiple interpretations.

• The advertising conditions are revised. It is newly required that when advertising special goods, products, and services, there must be valid documents and certifications allowed for circulation in Vietnam.

• ...

The draft advertising law revisions are open for public feedback until May 1, 2024, before further deliberation. If approved, the new law is proposed to take effect on January 1, 2026.

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