NOTABLE NEW POLICIES TAKING EFFECT ON JULY 1, 2026

The promulgation and amendment of policies and legal regulations play a crucial role in concretizing the State's guidelines and policies, while simultaneously meeting the demands of socio-economic development and international integration in each period. Changes in state management, along with new requirements arising from practical realities, dictate that the legal system must be regularly amended, supplemented, and perfected to ensure consistency, coherence, transparency, and feasibility during its implementation.

July 1, 2026, is the time when many important legal documents officially take effect, marking a notable transition in the institutional reform process and the perfection of the Vietnamese legal system. New policies are promulgated across various fields; the implementation of these new policies not only creates a legal basis for state management activities but also directly impacts the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of agencies, organizations, and individuals in society.

1. Increase in the base salary:

From July 1, 2026, the base salary will increase from 2,340,000 VND/month to 2,530,000 VND/month.

It can be understood that the base salary is the amount prescribed by the State, used as a basis to determine many regimes and policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees, armed forces, and certain other subjects, specifically:

- Calculating salary levels in payrolls, allowance levels, and implementing other regimes in accordance with the law for the following subjects:

• Cadres and civil servants from the central to the commune level as specified in Article 1 of the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants;
• Public employees in public service providers as specified in Article 1 of the Law on Public Employees;
• Persons performing jobs under labor contracts in administrative agencies and public service providers specified in the Government's Decree falling into the applicable cases or having an agreement in the labor contract to apply salary ranking according to Decree No. 204/2004/ND-CP dated December 14, 2004 of the Government on the salary regime for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and the armed forces;
• Persons working within the payroll quota at associations supported by the state budget for operating expenses as prescribed in Decree No. 126/2024/ND-CP dated October 8, 2024 of the Government regulating the organization, operation, and management of associations;
• Officers, professional military personnel, defense workers and public employees, defense civil servants, and contract workers of the Vietnam People's Army;
• Salaried officers and non-commissioned officers, public security workers, and contract workers of the People's Public Security;
• Persons working in cryptographic organizations;
• Non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Vietnam People's Army; non-commissioned officers and conscripts of the People's Public Security;
• Part-time workers in villages and residential groups.

- Calculating activity fee and living allowance levels in accordance with the law;

- Calculating deductions and enjoyed regimes based on the base salary level.

The upward adjustment of the base salary will correspondingly increase the salaries of subject groups applying the base salary according to their currently enjoyed salary coefficients.

Legal Basis: Articles 2 and 3 of Decree No. 161/2026/ND-CP dated May 15, 2026.

2. Increase in pensions, social insurance allowances, and monthly allowances:

According to the provisions of Article 2 of Decree No. 162/2026/ND-CP dated May 15, 2026, and Article 3 of Circular No. 14/2026/TT-BNV dated May 29, 2026, from July 1, 2026, pensions, social insurance allowances, and monthly allowances will be adjusted upward by 8% on the pensions, social insurance allowances, and monthly allowances of June 2026.

In addition, for some cases, after being adjusted upward by 8% on the pensions, social insurance allowances, and monthly allowances of June 2026, if the enjoyment level is still lower than 3,800,000 VND/month, it will continue to be adjusted as follows:

3. Many conditional business lines abolished:

It is known that the number of conditional business investment lines stipulated in Appendix IV of the 2025 Investment Law is 198 lines. However, according to Resolution No. 66.17/2026/NQ-CP dated May 15, 2026, from July 1, 2026, the number of conditional business investment lines will be reduced to 142 lines. In which, business lines that are not truly necessary for reasons of national defense, national security, social order and safety, social ethics, or public health are cut. At the same time, business lines whose business investment conditions can be managed through technical standards and regulations or occupational standards for post-inspection management are also cut. 56 (fifty-six) abolished conditional business lines include:

4. Responsibilities of sellers on intermediate e-commerce platforms and e-commerce social networks:

Compared to previous regulations, the 2025 Law on E-commerce has focused on elevating the responsibility of sellers to provide and publicly disclose information into a provision of the law. The legalization of this obligation contributes to increasing transparency, helping consumers have full information before making a purchase decision, limiting false advertising, and increasing consumer trust when shopping online.

Specifically, from July 1, 2026, the responsibilities of sellers on intermediate e-commerce platforms and e-commerce social networks are prescribed as follows:

- Sellers on intermediate e-commerce platforms without online ordering functions, and e-commerce social networks without online ordering functions shall fulfill the following responsibilities:

• Providing information to the management entity of the e-commerce platform to serve the authentication of the seller's identity;
• Providing the management entity of the e-commerce platform with information about the name and business location of the enterprise or business household according to the registration content made with the business registration authority; the name and headquarters address of the organization; the name and residential address of the individual;
• Publicly disclosing service information in accordance with relevant laws; information on the quality of products and goods on the e-commerce platform in accordance with the law on product and goods quality; mandatory information displayed on goods labels in accordance with the law on goods labels, except for specific information displayed on goods labels regarding the date of manufacture, expiration date, production batch number, chassis number, and engine number;
• Providing information on e-commerce activities upon request by competent state authorities.

- In addition to the above responsibilities, in cases where sellers on intermediate e-commerce platforms with online ordering functions, and e-commerce social networks with online ordering functions, they must also fulfill the following additional responsibilities:

• Only using their own payment accounts on the e-commerce platform;
• Providing the management entity of the e-commerce platform with full documents proving compliance with business investment conditions for conditional business investment lines before carrying out the sale of goods and provision of services on the platform;
• In case of discovering defective goods according to the law on the protection of consumer rights, the seller must provide information about the defective goods to the management entity of the e-commerce platform to publicly disclose the information on the platform, carry out the recall and handling of defective goods, and compensate for damages in accordance with the law on the protection of consumer rights and other relevant laws.

Legal Basis: Article 21 of the 2025 Law on E-commerce

5. Burden of proof when using words like "most", "only", "best", "number one" in advertising activities:

Pursuant to Clause 11, Article 8 of the 2012 Law on Advertising, prohibited acts in advertising include advertising that uses words such as "most", "only", "best", "number one" or words with similar meanings without legitimate proving documents in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Therefore, proving the advertising content when using the aforementioned words is the obligation of organizations and individuals. According to Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular No. 12/2026/TT-BVHTTDL dated May 22, 2026, to fulfill the burden of proof, organizations and individuals must have one of the following types of legitimate documents:

6. Additional regulations on maternity leave regimes:

To maintain the replacement fertility rate (the average fertility rate of each woman of reproductive age having 2.1 children), adding regulations on maternity leave regimes towards facilitating employees to have more time to prepare, care for, and rest before and after giving birth is a necessary measure to be applied. Accordingly, from July 1, 2026, female employees giving birth to their second child will be entitled to a maternity leave before and after birth of 07 months. In addition, male employees are also entitled to 10 working days off when their wives give birth.

Legal Basis: Point a, Clause 1, Article 14, Clause 1, Article 29 of the 2025 Population Law.

7. Official operation of the Electronic Labor Contract Platform:

The Electronic Labor Contract Platform managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs will officially be put into operation nationwide from July 1, 2026. The platform has the function of receiving, managing, issuing identification codes, and storing electronic labor contract data. The implementation of electronic labor contracts as well as officially operating the Electronic Labor Contract Platform not only creates favorable conditions for employees and employers in the process of entering into and implementing labor relations but also contributes to building a modern, transparent working environment suitable for the development requirements of the digital economy and the national digital transformation process.

Electronic labor contracts have the same legal validity as paper labor contracts. This means that the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of the parties when participating in an electronic labor contract are guaranteed similarly to traditional labor contracts. After an electronic labor contract is signed and authenticated, the data will be sent to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform to be issued an identification code and stored.

- Regarding identification codes: According to the provisions in Article 4 of Circular No. 08/2026/TT-BNV dated May 15, 2026, each electronic labor contract, when sent to the Electronic Labor Contract Platform, if complying with regulations, will be issued a unique ID that does not duplicate any other electronic labor contract. The ID is issued once and remains unchanged even in cases where the electronic labor contract is amended, supplemented, suspended, or terminated. Appendices, notices of suspension, and notices of termination of an electronic labor contract shall bear the ID of that electronic labor contract.

- Regarding the storage period: According to the provisions in Clause 3, Article 18 of Circular No. 08/2026/TT-BNV dated May 15, 2026, the storage period for data on electronic labor contracts, appendices to electronic labor contracts, and other related electronic documents on the Electronic Labor Contract Platform is 10 years from the date the labor contract is terminated. In case the employer and employee enter into multiple consecutive labor contracts according to Article 20 of the 2019 Labor Code, the 10-year period is calculated from the date of termination of the last labor contract.

In general, the legal policies taking effect from July 1, 2026, are all aimed at improving the consistency, coherence, and feasibility of the legal system. The amendment, supplementation, or promulgation of new regulations has contributed to overcoming the limitations and inadequacies of previous regulations, creating a transparent, stable legal corridor suitable for practical requirements. At the same time, these policies also reflect the trend of innovating legislative thinking and ensuring the effectiveness of law enforcement.

DL PINNACLE LAW FIRM LLC