Deputy Minister of Public Security: Fines are too light, large, cross-border businesses are willing to pay fines and violations

Ministry of Public Security - Photo 1.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Le Quoc Hung - Photo: GIA HAN

On the morning of June 5, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on receiving, explaining, and revising the draft Law on Personal Data Protection.

Damage must be compensated

According to Chairman of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee Le Tan Toi, many opinions suggested considering regulations on fines of 1-5% of revenue.

It is recommended that the penalty be prescribed commensurate with the damage or benefits gained from the violation; and that the regulations be consistent with the law on handling administrative violations.

Regarding this content, Mr. Toi said that the Standing Committee has coordinated with the drafting agency to absorb the above opinions and revise the bill.

Accordingly, the draft law is expected to absorb and revise the regulations on handling violations of the law on personal data protection, including 7 clauses.

It defines the principles of handling depending on the nature, level, and consequences, which will be subject to administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution; if damage is caused, compensation must be made.

Regarding administrative fines, due to the nature and serious consequences of violations of regulations on personal data protection, it is necessary to prescribe higher fines to ensure deterrence for large enterprises.

Especially multinational corporations or technology enterprises with revenue of thousands of billions of dong.

Based on the experience of the European Union and a number of countries, the draft stipulates in the following direction:

For the act of buying and selling personal data, the fine can be up to 10 times the amount of income obtained from the violation.

For violations of regulations on cross-border transfer of personal data, the maximum fine is 5% of the previous year's revenue; for other violations, the maximum fine is VND 3 billion.

At the same time, the fine for individuals is 1/2 of the fine for organizations. The Government is assigned to specify the fine level, the fine range and the method of calculating illegal income.

Giving his opinion later, Vice Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee Nguyen Truong Giang expressed concern about the regulation on the maximum fine of 5% of revenue.

He said that for businesses with large revenues, up to thousands of billions of VND, applying a rate of 5% of revenue would be very large.

Mr. Giang suggested that the maximum fine of 3 billion VND should not be imposed for other acts, but should be applied according to regulations on handling administrative violations to ensure consistency and compatibility.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh emphasized that violations related to personal data affect privacy rights. If only regular administrative penalties are applied, it will be difficult to ensure deterrence.

However, he also wondered that for businesses with large revenues, up to hundreds of thousands of billions of VND per year, it is impossible to collect at 5%, because that number is "extremely huge".

Deputy Minister of Public Security: Increase the maximum fine in administrative sanctions to 3 billion VND

Explaining further later, Senior Lieutenant General Le Quoc Hung, Deputy Minister of Public Security, stated that personal data, with its characteristics closely linked to humans and personal and privacy rights, cannot be considered ordinary goods or assets.

This is a special resource, a special asset, requiring exploitation and use to go hand in hand with protection at the highest level.

"If we allow the buying and selling of personal data, it means allowing the buying and selling of people, the buying and selling of human rights, and the right to decide on other people's personal information.

The view of banning the sale of personal data is consistent with international practices and regulations of countries to protect personal data," said Mr. Hung.

The Deputy Minister of Public Security said that awareness of personal data protection of many organizations, businesses and individuals is currently limited.

The importance of personal data protection is not fully realized, creating grey areas in the use of personal data.

"Currently, in the large-scale fraud and property appropriation cases that the Ministry of Public Security has cracked down on and is investigating, the factors of leaking, leaking, and buying and selling personal data are the main causes for the formation of very complex black markets for personal data...", Mr. Hung informed.

Regarding handling administrative violations, according to Senior Lieutenant General Hung, due to the nature and very serious consequences of the violation, it is necessary to prescribe higher fines to ensure deterrence for large enterprises, especially multinational corporations or high-tech enterprises with revenues of thousands of billions of VND.

"If the fine is too light, large enterprises and cross-border enterprises are willing to pay the fine, willing to violate the law to transfer personal data across borders, and reap huge profits," said Mr. Hung.

Through international experience, countries also have high and very high fines in this field such as the US, EU, Singapore, Indonesia - fines based on a percentage of revenue.

The maximum fine in the world converted to Vietnamese currency ranges from 4 billion VND to nearly 584 billion VND.

Mr. Hung said the draft law stipulates an increase in the maximum fine for administrative sanctions to VND3 billion. The Government proposes to amend and supplement the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations to ensure compliance.

Mr. Hung also emphasized that authorities can impose fines up to 10 times the amount of revenue from the violation.

COMMON

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-truong-bo-cong-an-phat-qua-nhe-doanh-nghiep-lon-xuyen-bien-gioi-san-sang-nop-phat-vi-pham-20250605091415073.htm