A landmark decision was issued on 19 April 2024 as Vietnam’s People’s Court of Hanoi found an accused guilty of illegally broadcasting through BestBuy IPTV service football matches of the English Premier League. It was the first time in Vietnam that a case was filed in criminal court for Copyright Under the Criminal Law – Copyright Violation through Illegal Streaming, creating a judicial precedent for similar future cases. While Vietnam’s Penal Code contains criminal provisions for copyright infringement, such cases did not come to court because of the difficulty in operationalizing some elements like “commercial scale” and the level of evidence. In this case, the Premier League and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) provided considerable information that enabled the authorities to track illegal profits and demonstrate the accused’s criminal intent. He had made huge illegal profits from several thousands of subscribers accessing the illegal streams for a monthly fee.

According to Vietnam’s amended 2015 Penal Code, there could be some instances that the illicit profits form the main consideration for prosecution rather than stating broad terms like “commercial scale.” Accordingly, the accused received a 30-month suspended prison term and 60 months of probation, a fine of 100 million Dong (about USD 3930), and the confiscation of illegal proceeds of 615 million Dong (about USD 24150). This verdict is a noteworthy turnaround for Vietnam’s IP law enforcement.