The expected Competition Law will come into effect in July, but enterprises are urging authorities to issue an instructive decree of the law application as soon as possible to clear up any existing obscurities in the new law.

Director of the Thanh Cong Trade Company Nguyen Khoa Son said although the competition law will regulate unhealthy competition acts, it currently fails to outline specific criteria identifying the difference between sanctioned and illegal acts of competition.

The law stipulates that unhealthy competition is an act that either contradicts business ethics or causes damage to the State’s interest and the legitimate rights and benefits of other enterprises or consumers. Son said this regulation presents the principle behind the law, but does not clearly define which competition act is not allowed.

Another problem is that the Competition Law does not contain regulations, criteria, or scientific grounds for specifying corporate market share, which is a very important factor defining the agreement limiting competition, the market dominance of a business, and prohibited cases of business concentration.

Lawyer Nguyen Khac Hai said that dealing with abuses of a business monopoly by an enterprise is a questionable affair. He said it is unclear that acts such as the recently-proposed price hike of Electricity of Viet Nam, the country’s largest electricity provider, and the congestion in Vinaphone’s mobile phone network should be regulated according to the law.

Acknowledging the enterprises concerns, the Ministry of Trade has pledged to issue an instructive law decree soon that will detail changes, and added that the decree will cover all issues currently lacking in the law.

A source from the ministry revealed that the act of forming an agreement between enterprises to limit competition will include the price setting of products or services, the partitioning of the supply and consumption markets, the adjusting of the production volume, the binding of outside partners to unrelated obligations and inhibitions to prevent other enterprises from entering the market or developing their own business.

These agreements, according to the ministry, will be classified as unhealthy competition acts in the draft decree.

Under the draft decree, the enterprise’s capabilities in finance, and technology and the scale of its distribution network will be used to assess the probability of an enterprise in limiting the competition.

The decree will define the competition-related procedural process as well as the agencies in charge of dealing with competition acts as stated in the law.

VNA