1. Consumer protection

The Government issued Decree 55/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 55”) dated 16 May 2024 detailing a number of articles of the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights. Decree 55 will take effect on 1 July 2024 and replace Decree 99/2011/ND-CP dated 27 October 2011. Below are some highlighted provisions of Decree 55.

Further guidelines on standard form contracts and general trading conditions

Traders doing business on products, goods and services on the List of products, goods and services subject to registration of standard form contracts and general trading conditions issued by the Prime Minister must register their standard form contracts and general trading conditions with the competent authority. Standard form contracts and general trading conditions shall be applied to consumers only after they are registered.

The State agency in charge of protection of consumer rights under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), and the State agencies in charge of protection of consumer rights under provincial People’s Committees are responsible for handling the applications for registration of standard form contracts and general trading conditions. These authorities have 30 days (or 60 days in complicated cases) upon receipt of the applications to review and register the relevant standard form contracts and general trading conditions.

The State agency in charge of protection of consumer rights may request traders to amend or cancel standard form contracts and general trading conditions when detecting that these documents breach the laws on protection of consumer rights. Traders must amend or cancel the contents in breach within 30 days after receipt of such request, except where the State agency in charge of protection of consumer rights decides to extend this time limit. Not later than 5 working day after amendment or cancellation of such  contents, traders must (i) publicize the amended standard form contracts and general trading conditions and (ii) notify the consumers who have signed standard form contracts in order to apply new general trading conditions, and sign such amended contracts if so required by the consumers.

Responsibilities for defective products and goods

The Law on Protection of Consumer Rights classifies defective products/goods as: (i) Group A – products/goods potentially cause harm to consumer’s health and lives, or cause harm to consumer’s health, lives and properties; and (ii) Group B – products/goods potentially cause harm to consumer’s properties. Traders shall decide the group of the defective products/goods for carrying out recall procedures.

Decree 55 specifies the timeframes within which traders must cease the supply of the defective products/goods, publicize, and publicly announce defective products/goods and the recall. For example, with respect to products/goods falling under Group A, within 3 working days after discovering a defect in the products/goods or receiving the competent agency’s request, the relevant trader must (i) post information about the defective products/goods and the recall at the head office and business locations, on the website and software applications (if any) of the trader, and (ii) publicly announce such information on mass media for at least five consecutive issues, except otherwise provided by laws.

Other issues

Decree 55 provides more details about notification on sales of products/goods or supply of services not at regular transaction location with a total value of more than VND 10 million. Traders must submit a notification (in Form 10 attached to Decree 55) to the commune-level People’s Committee of the locality where the sale of products/goods or provision of services is organized at least 3 working days before carrying out the sales.

Apart from the responsibilities stipulated in the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights, traders doing business in cyberspace, organisations establishing and operating large digital platform, and multi-level marketing enterprises and participants now have other responsibilities as set out in Decree 55.

2. Non-cash payment

The Government issued Decree 52/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 52”) dated 15 May 2024 regulating non-cash payment. Decree 52 takes effect from 1 July 2024 and replaces Decree 101/2012/ND-CP dated 22 November 2012, as amended. Some key provisions of Decree 52 are summarised below

Conditions for participation in international payment systems

A commercial bank or foreign bank’s branch will be eligible for participating in international payment systems if it meets the following conditions:

• It has been permitted to conduct basic forex activities on the domestic market and the international market;
• It has internal policies and risk management process for money laundering, terrorist financing, financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in accordance with laws;
• It has an information technology system that meets requirements on operation, safety and confidentiality required by Vietnamese law, and has internal regulations on selection standards for connecting international payments systems; and
• International payment system operators are lawfully established and operating abroad.

Within 24 months from the effective date of Decree 52 (i.e. 1 July 2024), the banks that have participated in international payment systems before that date are required to satisfy the above conditions and complete the necessary procedures to obtain approval of participation in international payment systems pursuant to the regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

E-wallets and prepaid cards

Decree 52 states that e-wallets and prepaid cards are devices on which electronic money is stored. Electronic money is defined in Decree 52 as Vietnamese Dong monetary value electronically stored on electronic devices which is supplied corresponding to the amount paid in advance by customers to banks, foreign banks’ branches or intermediary payment service providers that provide e-wallet services.

Banks and foreign banks’ branches are allowed to issue and provide e-wallets and prepaid cards. The provision, issuance and use of e-wallets and prepaid cards shall comply with the SBV’s regulations.

Decree 52 requires an intermediary payment service provider that provide e-wallet services to maintain the total balance of the assurance payment accounts opened at banks not less than the total balance of all e-wallets issued to its customers.

Intermediary payment services

Under Decree 52, intermediary payment services include financial circuit switching services, international financial circuit switching services, electronic set-off services, e-wallet services, support services of collection and disbursement and electronic payment gateway services. Non-bank entities satisfying all the conditions set out under Decree 52 shall submit application dossier to the SBV to apply for the licence for provision of intermediary payment services.

Within 6 months from the date of its licence, a non-bank entity must provide intermediary payment services. The licensed non-bank entity is only permitted to provide such services after operation of the technical system that satisfies the specific technical conditions stipulated under Decree 52.

At least 30 working days prior to the expected date of provision of its intermediary payment services and within 6 months from the date of its licence, the relevant non-bank entity must notify and provide the SBV with the necessary documents such as documents proving the technical system meeting the conditions specified in Decree 52. Within 15 working days from the date of receipt of all necessary documents, the SBV shall examine the actual satisfaction of the technical conditions and then issue a notice of satisfaction or unsatisfaction of the technical conditions. In case of unsatisfaction of the technical conditions, the SBV may consider to revoke the granted licence.

3. Water resources

On 16 May 2024, the Government issued Decree 54/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 54”) to regulate practice of underground water drilling; declaration, registration and water resource licences; and fees for granting water resource exploitation rights.

Decree 54 shall take effect from 1 July 2024 and replace Decree 02/2023/ND-CP implementing the Law on Water Resources 2012, Decree 82/2017/ND-CP regarding calculation of fees for granting water resource exploitation rights (as amended), and Decree 54/2015/ND-CP regarding preferences for using water in saving and effectiveness. Decree 54 provides for the following salient provisions.

Licences for water resource exploitation

Organisations and individuals that exploit water resources must obtain water resource exploitation licences from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) or the provincial People’s Committees, except exempted activities or activities subject to registration specified in the Law on Water Resources 2023 and Decree 54.

Decree 54 provides for the procedures and documents to be submitted for obtaining water resource exploitation licences. As compared to Decree 02/2023, Decree 54 requires the same documents but adds that the water resource quality analysis must be prepared by a qualified environmental monitoring organisation. The application dossier must be submitted to the dossier-receiving agency and then transferred to the relevant evaluation agency for evaluation. The evaluation agency may request further information from the applicant for consideration and approval. After evaluation, the licensing authority shall grant a water resource exploitation licence to the applicant or notify the applicant of its reasons for the rejection.

The process and procedures for extension, adjustment, re-issuance or return of water resource exploitation licences are also specified under Decree 54.

Fees for granting water resource exploitation rights

Decree 54 reiterates the provisions of the Law on Water Resources 2023 that organisations and individuals licensed to (a) exploit surface water for power generation; and (b) exploit surface water/underground water for production, business, aquaculture, agriculture or domestic use must pay the fees for granting water resource exploitation rights (“exploitation right fees”). There are certain circumstances where the exploitation right fees are exempted.

Decree 54 adopts the same formulas for calculation of exploitation right fees as those provided under Decree 82/2017. However, it changes the exploitation right fee rates based on which the amount of exploitation right fee is calculated. The rates now range from 0.05% to 2% and are provided in details in Annex V of Decree 54.

Calculation of exploitation right fees shall be conducted simultaneously with the
application for issuance, extension or renewal of water resource exploitation licences. The MONRE or the provincial People’s Committee shall approve or adjust exploitation right fees. Such fees shall be paid after the water exploitation works have been put into operation and the Decision approving the fees has been issued by the competent authority.

4. Amendments of the regulations on fire prevention and fighting

On 10 May 2024, the Government issued Decree 50/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 50”) to amend Decree 136/2020/ND-CP on fire prevention and fighting, and Decree 83/2017/ND-CP on rescue and salvage by firefighters. Decree 50 takes effect on 15 May 2024. Following are some key amendments of Decree 50 related to fire prevention and fighting (FPF) design approval.

Annex V of Decree 50 provides the list of projects, works and motor vehicles that are subject to the FPF design approval requirement. Construction design dossiers of (a) projects/works specified in Annex V upon new construction, or renovation/utility change in certain cases and (b) motor vehicles specified in Annex V when newly manufactured or reformed in certain cases, must apply for FPF design approval.

Decree 50 simplifies the dossier for FPF design approval. For technical designs or construction drawing designs of projects/works, the dossier includes: the investor’s written request for FPF design approval (in a standard form); estimated budget for construction; technical design or construction drawing design showing the contents of requirements on fire prevention and fighting prescribed in Article 11 of Decree 136/2020; and investment policy approval or paper proving land use rights for projects/works (for new construction of projects/works only).

For technical designs of motor vehicles, besides the written request for FPF design approval and estimated budget for vehicle investment, the vehicle owner must present technical design showing the contents on requirements on fire prevention and fighting applicable to motor vehicles.

Decree 50 also amends the authority to approve FPF designs. Specifically, the Vietnam Fire and Rescue Police Department (under the Ministry of Public Security) has the authority to approve FPF designs for the projects/works listed in Annex Va of Decree 50; while the Fire and Rescue Police Divisions (under provincial Public Security Authority) has the authority to approve FPF designs for (i) the projects/works and motor vehicles listed in Annex Vb of Decree 50, and (ii) other cases where the Vietnam Fire and Rescue Police Department delegates approval authority to the relevant Fire and Rescue Police Division.