Chương I Nghị định 43/2017/NĐ-CP về nhãn hàng hóa: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

1. This Decree deals with information on goods labels, presentation thereof, and state management of labels of goods circulated in Vietnam and imported goods.

2. The following goods shall not be regulated by this Decree:

a) Real property;

b) Goods temporarily imported for re-export; goods temporarily imported for re-export after participation in fairs or exhibitions; goods in transit, goods involved in merchanting trade transactions; transshipped goods;

c) Baggage of incoming/outgoing passengers; personal belongings;

d) Confiscated goods for auction purpose;

dd) Goods being fresh, raw food, processed food without packaging and sold directly to consumers;

e) Commodities being fuel, materials (agricultural products, aquatic products, minerals), construction materials (bricks, tiles, lime, sand, stone, gravel, cement, color soil, mortar, commercial mixed concrete), scrap (in production and business) without packaging and sold directly to consumers;

g) Commodities being petrol and oil, gas (LPG, CNG, LNG), liquid, bulk cement without commercial packaging in containers, tankers;

h) Used goods;

i) Exported goods without domestic use;

k) Goods in the area of security and national defense; goods being radioactive substances, goods to be used for emergencies so as to solve problems of natural disaster, epidemic diseases; railway, waterway, airway vehicles.

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Decree applies to manufacturers and traders of goods in Vietnam; importers of goods; regulatory authorities; relevant organizations and individuals.

Article 3. Interpretation of terms

For the purposes of this Decree, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. Label means any manuscript, printed copy, drawing, photocopy of words, pictures, images that is stuck, printed, attached to, casted, or carved, a container of goods or on other kinds of materials to be attached to the goods or commercial container;

2. Presentation of goods labels means presenting essential information on a label about its contents so as to enable consumers to identify the goods, give suitable selection, consume, and use; to enable manufacturers and traders to advertise the goods; and to enable regulatory agencies to carry out the inspection and supervision; 

3. Original label means the initial label that is attached to a goods or the goods' commercial package by the manufacturer;

4. Supplementary label means a label representing mandatory information translated from the original in a required foreign language and additional mandatory information in Vietnamese as prescribed by Vietnam’s law that is missing in the original label;

5. Commercial container means a package containing the goods and to be circulated accompany with the goods; commercial containers include the following types: Primary container and secondary container:

a) Primary container means the layer of packaging containing or in direct contact with the goods, forming the shape of goods, or tightly covering goods by their shape;

b) Secondary container means the layer of packaging to be used to cover one or a number of units of the goods in primary container;

6. Simple prepackaged goods means the goods to be packaged without witness of consumers but easily be opened for physical inspection purpose;

7. Circulation of goods means displaying, promoting, transporting or storing goods in the process of goods sale and purchase, except the transport of goods by importers from a checkpoint to a storehouse.

8. Transshipped goods means the goods to be transshipped from an exporting country to an importing country through a customs checkpoint and to be entered into transshipment ports in Vietnam;

9. Quantity means determining the quantity of goods by a unit of measurement or numerical count.

10. Date of manufacture means the point of time by which the final phase of goods or batch is completed;

11. “Expiry date” means the date which signifies the end of the estimated period, after which the goods or the batch of goods probably will not have the quality attributes normally expected.

The expiry date shall be expressed by a period beginning from the date of manufacture to the expiry date or expressed by day, month, and year of expiry. If the expiry date is expressed by month and year, the expiry date shall end at the last date of the expiry month;

12. Ingredient means any substance, including an additive, used in the manufacture and present in the final product although possibly in a modified form.

13. Ingredient quantity means the quantity of any substance, including an additive, used in the manufacture of the goods;

14. Instructions for use, instructions for storage mean information relating to the usage, necessary conditions for goods use or storage; hazardous warning; responses to hazardous incidents;

15. Warning means such information provided to assure the safety for health, assets, and environment during the process of transport, storage, preservation, and use.

16. Specifications include technical standards for value or identifying whether the commodity affects to the consumer's safety, health, the environment, process as established in standards or as established in technical standards or regulations of such product/commodity.

Article 4. Location

1. The label shall be put on the goods or commercial container in such a place that is easily visible, containing required information without being disassembled.

2. If it is inadmissible or impossible to open the primary container, it must have a label containing mandatory information.

Article 5. Size of labels, words and numbers on labels

An entity responsible for labeling shall self-identify the size of labels or words and numbers on labels providing that the following requirements are satisfied:

1. Sufficient mandatory information is available as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 10 hereof;

2. The size of words and numbers in the size that are considered easily visible to the naked eye and meet the following requirements:

a) The size of words and number expressing quantity shall comply with regulations of law on measurement;

b) If the goods is prepackaged food, food additive, or food processing aid, the height of words expressing mandatory label content shall not be lower than 1.2 mm. If one surface area of the container reserved for labeling (excluding the lap at the margin) is less than 80cm², the height of words shall not be lower than 0.9mm.

Article 6. Colors of words, symbols, and pictures on labels

Color of any word, number, drawing, picture, sign, or symbol on a label must be clear. In case of mandatory information, the color of words or numbers and color of background shall ensure the adequate contrast.

Article 7. Language

1. Mandatory information on the label must be written in Vietnamese, except for the cases prescribed in Clause 4 hereof.

2. In case of goods to be produced and circulated domestically, apart from the required language in Clause of this Article, another language is also allowed on their labels. The translations must convey the same meanings in Vietnamese. The font size of words in the other language may not be bigger than that font of words in Vietnamese.

3. If the goods imported into Vietnam of which the label has not represented or represented insufficiently mandatory information in Vietnamese, a supplementary label containing mandatory information in Vietnamese is required and the original label shall remain unchanged. The Vietnamese content shall be consistent with the original label text.

4. The following information is allowed to be written in other languages with Latin letter root:

a) International or botanical name of a drug for human use in case of absence from Vietnamese name;

b) International or botanical name enclosed with formula, structural formula of the chemical, active ingredients, excipients, ingredient of the drug;

c) International or botanical name of ingredient or ingredient quantity of goods if such name is impossible to be translated or possible to be translated but it does not make sense;

d) Name and address of the foreign enterprise relating to the manufacture of the commodity.

Article 8. Labeling of supplementary label

1. The supplementary label shall be used for imported goods as prescribed in Clause 3 Article 7 hereof.

2. The supplementary label shall used for goods not eligible for import or to be returned and circulated in the domestic market.

3. The supplementary label shall be attached to the commodity or commercial container without obscuring mandatory information of the original label.

4. The content of the supplementary label shall contain the Vietnamese translation from the mandatory information of the original label and additional other mandatory information according to the nature of the commodity as prescribed in this Decree. The entity responsible for labeling shall take responsibility for the content’s accuracy and truthfulness. The content displayed on the supplementary label shall also contain additionals without misleading the information of original label and correctly reflect the nature and origin of the goods.

In case of goods not eligible for import or to be returned and circulated in the domestic market, a bold phrase of “Được sản xuất tại Việt Nam” (“Made in Vietnam”) shall be required.

5. The following goods are not subject to labeling of supplementary labels:

a) Spare parts to be imported to replace defective spare parts in warranty of the service provider without being sold in the market;

b) Materials, food additives, food processing aids, spare parts to be imported for manufacture without being sold in the market.

Article 9. Responsibility for labeling

1. The entity responsible for labeling shall, including supplementary label, shall ensure that the labeling is made truthful, clear, precise and correctly reflect the substance of the goods.

2. For goods manufactured for domestic circulation, the manufacturer shall be responsible for labeling.

The entity responsible for labeling shall keep assuming responsibility without regard to an authorization of labeling to another entity.

3. In case goods are not eligible for export and are returned for circulation in the country, organizations and individuals shall, before putting such goods into circulation, label them in accordance with the provisions of this Decree.

4. For goods imported into Vietnam with original labels unconformable with the provisions of this Decree, the importer shall make supplementary labels in accordance with the provisions of Clause 3 Article 7 and Clauses 3,4 Article 8 of this Decree before putting such goods into circulation together with their original labels.