Advertising Law: The scope of “on social networks” does not take into account all platforms
VietnamPlus•24/09/2024
The majority of delegates agreed to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2012 Advertising Law to promptly institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies on cultural development. Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh speaks. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)
On the morning of September 24, continuing the 37th Session at the National Assembly House, chaired by Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Advertising.
The need for amendments and supplements
Advertising is the use of means to introduce to the public products, goods and services for profit purposes; products and services not for profit purposes; organizations and individuals trading in introduced products, goods and services, except for news; social policies; personal information. The current Advertising Law only mentions regulations on advertising on electronic newspapers and electronic information pages of state agencies, lacking regulations on advertising on electronic information pages of enterprises, individuals, other organizations, and no regulations on advertising on social networks... At the meeting, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung, on behalf of the Drafting Committee, pointed out the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2012 Advertising Law. The draft Law closely follows the purpose, guiding viewpoints and concretizes the content of the 3 policies in the proposal to develop the Law that was approved by amending and supplementing the provisions of the 2012 Advertising Law. Specifically, including: Completing regulations on advertising content and forms in accordance with the diverse development of advertising activities; completing regulations on management of advertising activities in the press, online environment and cross-border advertising services; completing regulations on outdoor advertising activities. Regarding the scope of regulation, inheriting the provisions of current laws, the draft Law stipulates advertising activities; rights and obligations of organizations and individuals participating in advertising activities; state management of advertising activities. This Law amends and supplements a number of provisions on management of advertising content and conditions; management of advertising activities on the network environment, cross-border advertising services and advertising in the press; outdoor advertising activities. The report on the review of the draft Law by Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh stated that the Committee on Culture and Education agrees with the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2012 Advertising Law in order to create a complete, synchronous and unified legal corridor to manage advertising activities, support and promote the development of advertising service businesses... Regarding the requirements on advertising content of special products, goods and services (Clause 7, Article 1 of the draft Law supplementing Article 19a), there are 2 types of opinions. Specifically, the first type of opinion agrees with the Drafting Committee to add regulations on advertising content for special products, goods and services. At the same time, it is recommended that the drafting agency continue to review and ensure the consistency of the legal system. The second type of opinion suggests keeping the current regulations as assigned to the Government to regulate because these are special products, goods and services, technical and specialized in nature, which have a direct impact on human health and may fluctuate from period to period. The Standing Committee of the Culture and Education Committee believes that the requirements on advertising content for special products, goods and services have been stable, clear and tested in practice, and should be included directly in the draft Law after review to ensure consistency and compatibility with related laws. According to the Inspection Report, some contents need to be further clarified, such as: Clause 8, Article 2, which only regulates activities “on social networks”, is not comprehensive and does not take into account all existing platforms and forms of communication and those that may arise in the future. Regarding the method of conducting activities on social networks, this provision does not specify activities on social networks to serve as a basis for regulating the rights and obligations of those who transmit advertising products as well as facilitating the application of the law…
State management of advertising
The majority of delegates agreed to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2012 Advertising Law to promptly institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies on cultural development. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung speaks. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA) At the same time, promote the role of central and local state advertising management agencies in implementing policies and laws on advertising activities. Regarding the content of advertising of special products, goods and services (Clause 7, Article 1 of the draft Law supplementing Article 19a), through research, Chairman of the Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung said that there is a provision re-stipulating the content that has been prescribed in specialized laws, but there is a provision only citing specialized laws, leading to inconsistency. Therefore, the Chairman of the Law Committee proposed that for the content requiring advertising of specific products, goods and services that have been prescribed in specialized laws, it should not be repeatedly prescribed in the law but should only be cited. For the content that has been implemented stably and consistently but has not been prescribed in specialized laws, it can be prescribed in this law or assigned to the Government to prescribe. In her concluding remarks, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh requested the drafting agency to continue to complete the Law Enforcement Summary Report, the Impact Assessment Report and related documents according to the comments of the reviewing agency and the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee. The National Assembly Standing Committee suggested that it is necessary to continue reviewing the fields, means, methods and approaches to more comprehensively identify advertising activities as well as forecast possible developments in practice. Regarding the responsibility for state management of advertising activities, the Drafting Committee continued to review and add the responsibilities of relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Public Security and other ministries to the draft resolution to ensure requirements on network security, social order and security, etc.
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