Facebook, Google to face new rules on cross-border ads services from September

The government has issued Decree No.70/2021/ND-CP amending and supplementing some regulations in Decree No.181/2013/ND-CP dated April 14, 2013 implementing the Law on Advertising.

Accordingly, Decree 70 revises Article 13 of Decree 181 on providing cross-border advertisement services in Vietnam by requiring cross-border platforms like Facebook and Google to remove ads violating regulations within 24 hours after receiving a notice from the Ministry of Communications and Information (MIC). The new rules will be effective from September 15.

As ruled by Decree 70, cross-border ad services in Vietnam are "the use of electronic information sites by foreign organisations and individuals to provide advertising services from systems located outside of Vietnam, for users in Vietnam, having revenue generated in Vietnam" (from Baker McKenzie).

Under the new rules, foreign institutions and individuals who provide cross-border ad services must inform the MIC about the names of the organisation,trading names, address of their head office and where servers are located, as well as their contact addresses in Vietnam 15 days before beginning providing cross-border ad services in Vietnam.

The new regulation also requires ad service providers to apply technical measures to control and remove the ads that violate the laws. They must not cooperate with news websites that have been publicly announced to have violated the laws.

The issuance of the new decree aims to to tighten control over cross-border ad services in Vietnam among foreign platforms such as Google and Facebook, which make up the majority of revenues from digital ads in Vietnam.