New Legislation Comes to Force in Vietnam for Foreign Internet Providers

July 26, 2013 (Fri): Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed a new law for foreign Internet providers on July 15, 2013, which will come into effect from September 1, 2013, Vietnam News reported. The new law enforces foreign companies that do not have representative offices in Vietnam but allow Vietnamese users access such as Facebook, Twitter and Google must adhere to Vietnam’s regulations and laws on the management, provision and use of Internet services and electronic information on the Internet.

The new law also brings impacts to the management of online games. Under the new law, online games with classified into four categories as below:

• G1 – Interactive games between users who have different service providers;
• G2 – Interactive games between users and service providers;
• G3 – Interactive games between users but not through the servers of service providers; and
• G4 – Games downloaded from the Internet where users cannot interact with each other or with service providers.

The new law will require all companies issuing G1 online games must get approval from the Ministry of Information and Communications and other categories game providers just need to have registration certificates and announce when they will be supplying services for each game. Foreign firms and individuals that provide online games for Vietnamese users must register themselves with the relevant Vietnamese agencies and must have at least one server in Vietnam.