Popularizing movies on Facebook without classifying will be fined up to 100 million VND

Legal Consulting Office of Lao Dong Newspaper answers:

Clause 2, Article 12 of Decree No. 87/2026/ND-CP stipulates penalties for administrative violations in the field of culture and advertising (effective from May 15, 2026), stipulating fines from 40 million VND to 50 million VND for one of the following acts:

a) Disseminating films on the cinema system, on television systems and public film screening locations without a film classification license or broadcasting decision;

b) Disseminating films in cyberspace without classifying and displaying classification results as prescribed;

c) Changing or falsifying the content of films and the results of film classification that have been licensed for film classification or broadcasting decisions;

d) Issuing and disseminating films that have had a decision to revoke the film classification license or the broadcasting decision.

3. Remedial measures:

a) Forcing the removal of films on the television system for acts of distributing and disseminating films on the television system without a film classification license or broadcasting decision specified in point a, clause 2 of this Article;

b) Forcing the destruction or removal of films containing content specified in points a, b and i, clause 1, Article 9 of the Cinema Law No. 05/2022/QH15 for acts of distributing and disseminating films on cinema systems, public film screening locations without a film classification permit or broadcasting decision specified in point a, clause 2 of this Article;

c) Forcing the removal of films in cyberspace for acts specified in point b, clause 2 of this Article;

d) Forced to restore the original state for the act specified in point c, clause 2 of this Article;

e) Forcing the return of illegal profits obtained from the acts specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

Clauses 2, 3, Article 6 of Decree No. 87/2026/ND-CP stipulate:

2. The penalty level specified in Chapter II and Chapter III of this Decree is the penalty level applied to individuals, except for cases specified in Clauses 2, 5, 6 and 7 of Article 15; Clauses 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Article 16; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and point b of Clause 5 of Article 33; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and point b of Clause 5 of Article 34; Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and point a of Clause 5 of Article 35; Articles 57, 58 and 59 of this Decree is the penalty level applied to organizations.

3. For the same administrative violation, the fine for organizations is 2 times the fine for individuals.

Thus, from May 15, 2026, the act of disseminating films on Facebook without classification may be fined from 40 million VND to 50 million VND for individuals and from 80 million VND to 100 million VND for organizations and forced to implement remedial measures as above.