On 27 January 2022, the government issued Decree No. 14/2022/ND-CP to amend and supplement several provisions of Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in the fields of postal services, telecommunications, radio frequency, information technology and electronic transactions, and Decree No. 119/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in journalistic and publishing activity. Decree No. 14 was issued with the aim of: implementing the new provisions of the amended Law on Handling Administrative Violations, supplementing sanctions for the violating acts, including those regarding spam, illegal content, social network management, game licensing, etc., and revising and supplementing provisions regarding the authorities to fine administrative violations.

On 27 January 2022, the government issued Decree No. 14/2022/ND-CP to amend and supplement several provisions of Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in the fields of postal services, telecommunications, radio frequency, information technology and electronic transactions (“Decree No. 15”), and Decree No. 119/2020/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in journalistic and publishing activity (“Decree No. 14”). Decree No. 14 was issued with the aim of: 1) Implementing the new provisions of the amended Law on Handling Administrative Violations 2) Supplementing sanctions for the violating acts, including those regarding spam, illegal content, social network management, game licensing, etc 3) Revising and supplementing provisions regarding the authorities to fine administrative violations

On 22 November 2021, the Ministry of Justice published the latest version of the Draft Decree amending Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP1 on the management, provision and use of internet services and online information submitted for its final legal assessment. There is no exact deadline for this round of consultation.

On 6 October 2021, the Ministry of Information and Communications released a proposal to amend the Law on Telecommunications, including an outline for the proposed amendments. The outline of the new Law is still in a skeletal proposal form.

On 20 September 2021, the Ministry of Public Security released the Draft Decree on Cybersecurity Administrative Sanctions. The MPS is collecting public opinions on this Draft Decree until 18 November 2021. The Draft Decree consists of four chapters and 51 articles, with the main substance regarding administrative violations, penalties, and remedial measures covered under Chapter II.

On 25 September 2021, the government passed Decree No. 85/2021/ND-CP amending several provisions of Decree No. 52/20213/ND-CP on e-commerce. The amendments and supplements under Decree No. 85, effective on 1 January 2022, focus on the provision of cross-border e-commerce services in Vietnam.

Earlier this month (7 August), the MIC released and called for public consultation on the draft decree amending and supplementing several provisions of Decree No. 25/2011/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the Law on Telecommunications (“Draft Decree”). The deadline for contribution to this consultation is 7 October 2021.

On 20 July 2021, the Government issued Decree No. 70/2021/ND-CP amending certain articles of Decree No. 181/2013/ND-CP implementing the Advertising Law. In line with previous drafts, Decree No. 70 focuses on regulating cross-border advertising activities and revises the three main articles, Articles 13, 14 and 15, of Decree No. 181 accordingly. The amended Decree No. 181 will take effect on 15 September 2021.

On 20 July 2021, the Government issued Decree No. 70/2021/ND-CP (“Decree No. 70”) amending certain articles of Decree No. 181/2013/ND-CP implementing the Advertising Law (“Decree No. 181”). In line with previous drafts, Decree No. 70 focuses on regulating cross-border advertising activities and revises the three main articles, Articles 13, 14 and 15, of Decree No. 181 accordingly. The amended Decree No. 181 will take effect on 15 September 2021.

In recent years, the Vietnamese government has attempted to follow global best practices in regulating data. One critical aspect of these new legislative attempts has to do with Vietnam’s data localization requirements. This article articulates the basic principles concerning these still-developing localization requirements.