Developments in the Extraterritorial Application of Vietnamese Competition Law – Grab’s Acquisition of Uber’s Southeast Asia Operation

Vietnam’s first regulation on merger control was its 2004 Competition Law. A little over a decade after the merger review regime had been established, a number of obstacles and inadequacies were detected. Critics noted that the Law provided ineffective control over economic concentration practices. This was especially true for transactions that, although overseas, nevertheless had adverse effects on competition in Vietnam. The Vietnam Competition Council’s decision regarding Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s business in Southeast Asia (including Vietnam) is one example of how the 2004 Competition Law struggled with the complexity of transnational and foreign-based transactions. Using Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s business as a case study, this paper analyzes how Vietnamese law on controlling economic concentration practices has developed. It is argued that, although the merger control regime in Vietnam has undergone considerable development, with the 2018 Competition Law replacing the 2004 Competition Law, some issues still need to be addressed in order to achieve better alignment with market practices. At the same time, the law needs to evolve in order to make the enforcement of Vietnam’s regulations on merger control more effective, especially with regard to foreign-to-foreign transactions.