The primary merger control legislation is the Competition Law 2018, which came into force on 1 July 2019. The Competition Law 2018 provides for inter alia, a definition of concentration, notification thresholds, dossier requirements, appraisal process and the violation of the merger control regime.
The current regime adopt the new effects-base approach whereby the NCC uses the “substantial lessening of the competition” test to decide whether to greenlight a merger. Others notable reforms include appraisal process, jurisdictional thresholds and substantive assessment.
A number of provisions of the Competition Law 2018 are guided by Decree No 35/2020/ND-CP date 24 March 2020 (Guiding Decree), which set out, inter alia, specific thresholds for merger filings and appraisal criteria. The Guiding Decree took effect from 15 May 2020.