Many new advertising regulations hinder creative businesses

Fear hinders innovation

Recently, VCCI has issued an official document providing comments 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 on advertising revenue.

VCCI argues that the market is capable of self-regulation. If ads are 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-offering will limit new forms of interactive advertising, where users can experience the product directly.

A 5 second timeout limit breaks flexible delivery models, potentially causing a constantly interrupted user experience.

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

Fear of revenue decline

Article 21.3 of the draft requires that specialized advertising screens such as those in elevators and building lobbies must not be installed with devices that collect images and videos of viewers.

VCCI believes that this regulation 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 decide on investment. 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 rely on advertising revenue to maintain operational services such as elevators and security. VCCI also emphasized that the issue of personal data protection has been fully regulated in other laws. Therefore, VCCI proposed to remove this regulation.

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 impossible for very short advertisements (under 10 seconds) or advertisements without sound (LCD screens in supermarkets). Allowing warnings to be displayed in writing would be more appropriate and effective.

For food advertising, the name and address of the manufacturer are required. 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. Moreover, a product can be manufactured by many factories, causing great difficulty when designing advertisements.

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

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/kinh-te/nhieu-quy-dinh-moi-ve-quang-cao-can-tro-doanh-nghiep-sang-tao/20250812093103607