1. Regulations on promotions in the form of discounts

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 10 of Decree 81/2018/ND-CP regulations on selling goods and providing services at prices lower than the previous sales and service supply prices, applied during the promotion period. announced (promotion in the form of discounts) as follows:

- In case of promotion in the form of discounts, the price reduction of promoted goods and services during the promotion period at any time must comply with the provisions of Article 7 of Decree 81/2018/ ND-CP.

- Do not reduce the selling price of goods or service provision in cases where the selling price of goods or services is subject to specific pricing by the State.

- Do not reduce the selling price of goods or provide services below the minimum price in cases where the selling price of goods or providing services is subject to the State's price framework or minimum price regulations.

- It is strictly prohibited to take advantage of this form of promotion to dump goods and services.

- The total time of promotion in the form of discounts for a type of goods or services must not exceed 120 days in a year, excluding the promotion time of promotional programs by form of price reduction within the framework of centralized promotional programs and trade promotion programs and activities decided by the Prime Minister.

2. Do discounts on goods have to be registered with the Department of Industry and Trade?

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 88 of the 2005 Commercial Law, the definition of promotional activities is as follows: Promotion is a concept that refers to trade promotion activities according to the provisions of law for identified subjects. is a trader whose purpose is to promote the purchase and sale of goods and provision of services by giving customers certain benefits.

The trader will carry out promotional activities, which may be the case where the trader directly promotes the goods and services that he or she sells, or the trader providing promotional services will carry out promotional activities for the goods. goods and services of other traders in accordance with the parties' agreement.

It can be seen that promotional activities are trade promotion activities of traders in accordance with the provisions of commercial law. According to the current provisions of the 2005 Commercial Law, promotional activities in general and commodity price reductions in particular need to carry out registration procedures at a competent state agency.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 19 of Decree No. 81/2018/ND-CP of the Government detailing the Commercial Law on trade promotion activities, there are regulations on registration of promotion processes as follows: after:

- Merchants carry out administrative procedures to register promotional activities according to the provisions of law and must be confirmed by competent agencies in the field of state management before conducting promotional programs. According to the provisions of law, forms of promotion must comply with the provisions of Article 92 of the 2005 Commercial Law.

Thus, based on the above regulations, in case of reducing the selling price of goods, it will be necessary to carry out registration procedures to all Departments of Industry and Trade where such price reduction activities are organized.

3. What types of goods and services are allowed to be included in promotions?

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 5 of Decree 81/2018/ND-CP, there are regulations on promotional goods and services used for promotion as follows:

Goods and services promoted and used for promotion shall comply with the provisions of the 2005 Commercial Law and the following specific regulations:

- Promotional goods and services do not include alcohol, lotteries, cigarettes, breast milk substitutes, human medicines, including medicines that have been permitted for circulation according to regulations of the Ministry of Health (except in case of promotions for drug traders) medical examination and treatment services of public medical establishments, educational services of public establishments, public vocational education establishments, goods and services banned from circulation in Vietnam and other goods and services prohibited from promotion according to the provisions of law.

- Goods and services used for promotion do not include alcohol, lotteries, cigarettes, human medicines, including medicines that have been permitted for circulation according to regulations of the Ministry of Health (except for promotions for drug traders), goods and services banned from circulation in Vietnam and other goods and services banned from promotion according to the provisions of law.

- Money can be used as goods and services for promotion, except for promotional cases as prescribed in Articles 8, 10, and 11 of Decree 81/2018/ND-CP.

4. Regulations on information disclosure when promoting goods

When selling goods or providing services at prices lower than the previous sales or service supply prices (referred to as discount promotions), businesses need to publicly disclose the following information:

- Name of promotional activity;

- Selling price of goods, price of providing promotional services and related costs to deliver promoted goods and services to customers;

- Name, address, phone number of the merchant conducting the promotion;

- Promotion period, start date, end date and promotional area;

- In case the benefits of participating in a promotion are associated with specific conditions, the notice must clearly state that the promotional activity is accompanied by conditions and the specific content of the conditions;

- Absolute value or percentage lower than the normal selling price of goods or service provision before the promotion period for the form of promotion.

Enterprises disclose the above information in the following forms:

- For goods: Publicity at the place of sale and display; on the goods or packaging or in any other manner but must be attached to the goods when they are sold.

- For services: Publicized at the place of supply or any other method but must be attached to the service when the service is provided.

In addition to the above information, traders must also publicly announce the following information related to promotional activities:

- Selling price of goods, price of providing services given to customers for promotional forms of giving goods to customers, providing services without collecting money;

- Absolute value or percentage lower than the normal selling price of goods or service provision price before the promotional period for sales promotion or service provision at a price lower than the selling price or supply price. previous service application, applied during the registered or announced promotional period;

- Monetary value or specific benefits that customers receive from vouchers or service vouchers; locations of sales and service provision and types of goods and services that customers can receive from purchase vouchers and service usage vouchers for forms of sales promotion and service provision accompanied by Vouchers and service vouchers for customers to enjoy one or a number of certain benefits;

Note: Before organizing a discount promotion, businesses must carry out procedures to notify the promotion program to the Department of Industry and Trade where the promotion is organized.