Concerns about hindering innovation

Recently, VCCI has issued an official document commenting on the draft Decree detailing a number of articles and guiding the implementation of the Law on Advertising, based on feedback from the business community. VCCI believes that, although sharing the goal of protecting consumers of the drafting agency, many regulations in the draft are interfering too deeply in business activities, with the risk of negatively impacting the entire digital economy.

Article 18 of the draft sets out quite strict regulations for online advertising, such as: ads must be turned off with one click, the maximum waiting time is 5 seconds, and new ads cannot be turned on after the old ads have been turned off.

According to VCCI, this regulation is not suitable for the modern digital business model. In essence, users are using many services (watching movies, reading news, listening to music...) for free, in return, platforms and content creators live off advertising revenue.

Advertising in a building elevator.

VCCI argues that the market has the ability to self-regulate. If the advertisement is annoying, users will leave the platform, directly affecting the revenue of all parties. The State's deep intervention in the duration and form of advertising will hinder innovation and reduce the quality of digital content.

Specifically, VCCI proposed to remove all three of the above regulations. Requiring one-click ad shutdown will limit new forms of interactive advertising, where users can experience the product directly.

The 5-second timeout limit will disrupt flexible distribution models, which can cause continuous interruptions in the user experience.

The regulation of not turning on new ads after they have been turned off is impractical for long-form content such as movies, long videos, etc., where the allocation of multiple ad spots is necessary to maintain revenue and production quality.

Concerns about revenue loss

Article 21.3 of the draft requires that advertising screens such as those in elevators and building lobbies are not equipped with devices to collect image and video data of viewers.

VCCI believes that this provision needs to be seriously reconsidered. Collecting anonymous data such as view counts, estimated age and gender is extremely important for advertisers to measure effectiveness and make investment decisions. Without data, they will not be willing to spend money, making this form of advertising less effective.

This will directly impact buildings, as many places are dependent on advertising revenue to maintain operational services such as elevators and security. VCCI also emphasizes that the issue of personal data protection has been fully regulated in other laws. Therefore, VCCI proposes to remove this provision.

The draft also sets out requirements that businesses consider unfeasible. For cosmetics advertising, the requirement is to "read clearly" the warning content on television (TV, video). VCCI believes that this is not possible with very short advertisements (under 10 seconds) or advertisements without sound (LCD screens in supermarkets). Allowing the display of warnings in writing would be more appropriate and effective.

For food advertising, the requirement is to include the name and address of the manufacturer. According to VCCI, this regulation is unnecessary because the current law only requires information from the unit responsible for the product. The manufacturer's information is already on the label. Furthermore, a product can be manufactured by many factories, causing great difficulties when designing advertisements.

For the above reasons, VCCI recommends that the drafting agency amend or eliminate these regulations to be more suitable to reality and create conditions for business development.