What level of violation of competition regulations will be prosecuted?

So I want to know, to what extent will violations of competition regulations be prosecuted? That is the concern of Mr. Le Thanh Long (Yen Thanh, Nghe An).

Reply: The crime of violating competition regulations is stipulated in Clause 1, Article 217 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented by Clause 50, Article 1 of Law No. 12/2017/QH14), specifically as follows:

1. A person who commits one of the following acts, causing damage to another person from VND 1,000,000,000 to under VND 5,000,000,000 or illegally gaining profits from VND 500,000,000 to under VND 3,000,000,000, shall be subject to a fine of VND 200,000,000 to VND 1,000,000,000, non-custodial reform for up to 02 years or imprisonment from 03 months to 02 years:

a. Agreements to prevent or restrain other businesses from participating in the market or developing business;

b. Agreement to exclude from the market enterprises that are not parties to the agreement;

c. Agreements restricting competition when the parties to the agreement have a combined market share of 30% or more in the relevant market in one of the following cases: agreement to directly or indirectly fix prices of goods and services; agreement to divide consumption markets, sources of supply of goods and services; agreement to limit or control the quantity and volume of production, purchase and sale of goods and services; agreement to restrict technical and technological development, limit investment; agreement to impose on other enterprises conditions for signing contracts for the purchase and sale of goods and services or to force other enterprises to accept obligations not directly related to the subject of the contract.

2. Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be subject to a fine of from VND 1,000,000,000 to VND 3,000,000,000 or imprisonment from 01 year to 05 years:

a. Committing the crime 2 times or more;

b. Using sophisticated, cunning tricks;

c. Abuse of dominant market position or monopoly position;

d. Illegal profits of VND 3,000,000,000 or more;

d. Causing damage to others of VND 5,000,000,000 or more.”;

3. The offender may also be fined from VND 50,000,000 to VND 200,000,000, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 01 to 05 years.

4. A commercial legal entity committing a crime specified in this Article shall be punished as follows:

a. Committing a crime under the provisions of Clause 1 of this Article shall be subject to a fine of from VND 1,000,000,000 to VND 3,000,000,000;

b. Committing a crime under the provisions of Clause 2 of this Article shall be subject to a fine of from VND 3,000,000,000 to VND 5,000,000,000 or suspension of operations for a period of from 06 months to 02 years;

c. Commercial legal entities may also be fined from VND 100,000,000 to VND 500,000,000, banned from doing business, banned from operating in certain fields or banned from raising capital from 01 to 03 years.”.

The crime of violating competition regulations stipulates the legal signs of the crime and the basic penalty framework; stipulates the cases of aggravated crime; stipulates the additional penalty framework for the offender and stipulates the penalty framework for commercial legal entities that must bear criminal responsibility. The objective behavior of the crime is defined as the illegal agreement between enterprises, causing damage to other enterprises as well as to consumers in violation of the provisions of the competition law. Accordingly, there are 3 types of agreements. The committed act is considered a crime if it causes damage to others from 1 billion VND or more or illegal profits from 500 million VND or more. Depending on the cases and levels, there are specific penalties.