Nguyen Trong Nghia, a member of the Viet Nam Competition Council (VCC), said that "warnings" and "penalties" in the law needed to be clarified.

"It should identify which cases apply to warnings or to penalties. This would help avoid the uncontrolled use of penalties applied to violators," he said, adding that many companies had received penalties unfairly.

Nghia spoke at a workshop held yesterday in HCM City on the five-year implementation of the law and policies related to anti-competitive behaviors.

Nghia said a "warning" was often sufficient as punishment for some companies.

Currently, the highest penalty for a violation is 10 per cent of the company's total sales turnover of the previous year.

However, the penalty seems to be inappropriate for a multi-sector company, he added.

A multi-sector company that violates one kind of brand or service also has to pay a fine of 10 per cent of total sales turnover.

The workshop was attended by ministry officials, judges and experts from the Supreme People's Court, Administrative Courts under the People's Courts in central and southern provinces of Viet Nam, domestic and foreign law firms, representatives from the business community, academics and trade associations.

Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan, director general of Ministry of Industry and Trade's Legal Affair Department, said "the current problem is the lack of specific regulations on punishments for violators of the law."

Proposals made during the workshop to amend the law would be submitted to the ministry, Tan said.

During the eighth Party Congress, it was pointed out that a healthy competitive environment was needed for a market-oriented economy, and that competition was good for the country's development, Tan said.

Speaking at the meeting, Do Khac Tuan, chief justice of the HCM City People's Supreme Court, said "the law had aimed to ensure the rights of businesses and Viet Nam's market economy."

However, many companies still lacked information about the Competition Law, and continued to participate in activities that include monopoly and market domination.

Tuan said the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant agencies should disseminate more information about the law and organise training courses and seminars.

Le Danh Vinh, deputy minister of the ministry, who is also chairman of the VCC, said businesses must raise their awareness about the Competition Law.

In the last five years, more than 40 cases related to the violation of the Competition Law have been investigated, all of which included sanctions.

Three of the 40 companies were involved in abuse of monopoly, abuse of market dominance and anti-competitive agreements.

Trinh Minh Hien, a member of the Viet Nam Competition Council, spoke about his experience in dealing with some of the cases, including one involving the Viet Nam Air Petrol Company (VINAPCO), which stopped selling petrol to Pacific Airlines.

Pacific Airlines had not accepted the higher price of petrol suggested by VINAPCO.

However, VINAPCO was found abusing its monopoly to harm other businesses and faced a fine of 0.025 per cent of its 2007 turnover.

Evidence and information collected by the Viet Nam Competition Authority was the key factor in helping the Viet Nam Competition Council deal with the lawsuit, Hien said.

She said the council should publicise information on lawsuits and the Competition Law on its website in Vietnamese and English to help domestic and foreign businesses gain better insight into the law.

Since the Competition Law was promulgated on December 3, 2004, enforcement has been the responsibility of the Viet Nam Competition Council and Viet Nam Competition Authority.

The Competition Law has given these two organizations two major responsibilities: controlling anti-competitive behavior and controlling unfair competition behaviours.

Among the assigned tasks, controlling anti-competitive behaviors are complicated and inter-disciplinary, which requires of law enforcement agencies a greater capacity in investigation and economic and technical analysis.

The workshop was organised by the Viet Nam Competition Council in collaboration with the Multilateral Trade Assistance Project, Phase III (EU–Viet Nam MUTRAP III). —VNS