After pushback from the local business and startup communities, Vietnam’s National Assembly is likely to throw out a controversial new law which would have criminalized some online businesses.
Article 292, which was written into Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code, would have handed down criminal charges to unregistered online businesses which earned profits of at least VND50 million (US$2,242) or revenue of VND500 million (US$22,420), reports VnExpress. If taken to court, under the law these charges could lead to a jail sentence of as high as five years.
However the National Assembly’s Justice Committee agreed yesterday to eliminate Article 292 from the code. Though it has not yet been officially removed, legislators are expected to scrap the rule soon, pending almost certain approval from the National Assembly.
The 2015 Penal Code was meant to go into effect on July 1 of this year, however it has since been postponed while legislators iron out a series of errors.
At a time when Saigon’s government is seeking to foster the city’s startup growth, the new law could have had a major impact on Vietnam’s online business. In July, members of the local startup community submitted a petition with 6,000 signatures to the national government requesting the removal of the law. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry also urged the national government to review the rule, citing the country’s increasingly modern business environment.
The rule would also place a greater burden on local startups versus foreign businesses, as lawyer Tran Duc Hoang pointed out that companies operating outside of Vietnam, such as Facebook, would not be held to the same standard as local firms.
[Photo via Bloomberg]
