Scenario: What risk does association membership carry? — the opening question on “Industry Association Investigated for Price Recommendations: How Members Exit”, with a reference situation of around 23,750 USD, under the law on 20 October 2026.
1. The current legal basis for EXP-6073
The directly governing framework is Competition Law 23/2018/QH14, Decree 35/2020/ND-CP and Decree 75/2019/ND-CP on competition penalties.
An industry association’s price recommendation becomes a risk when it operates as indirect price-fixing among directly competing members: the 2018 Competition Law bans restrictive agreements even when dressed as an association document, and the association itself can be sanctioned as a related organisation.
2. Applying the rules to the concrete situation
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement.
The client’s questions on this topic — What risk does association membership carry?; How do we exit the price arrangement?; Can we file for leniency separately?; What records must be kept? — form a single decision chain: a wrong answer at the first link distorts every later link, so this article keeps the chain’s order and always returns to the file, the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received, to prove its conclusions.
3. Working through the questions companies actually ask
What risk does association membership carry?
An industry association’s price recommendation becomes a risk when it operates as indirect price-fixing among directly competing members: the 2018 Competition Law bans restrictive agreements even when dressed as an association document, and the association itself can be sanctioned as a related organisation. Applied to the file, the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received shows this conclusion holds against the instruments cited in section 1.
How do we exit the price arrangement?
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement. The test of this conclusion sits in the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received and the the framework set out above framework.
Can we file for leniency separately?
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement. To rely on this conclusion, the company needs the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received matching the framework above.
What records must be kept?
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement. The risk on this point falls only when the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received is completed under the instruments cited in section 1.
4. Handling process and the file to prepare
- Hold the situation up against the framework above and record matches and divergences in an internal minute.
- Assemble the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received into one indexed set with a named owner.
- Stick to the order the minutes approved — paperwork first, action second, never the other way round.
- Keep the EXP-6073 file as its own set, ready to produce when an authority or partner asks.
5. A worked figure and the action conclusion
Figures speak: 23,750 USD × 5% = 1,187 USD. A duty at this level requires the file to be complete before the transaction closes.
Conclusion: the point to remember on EXP-6073 is: An industry association’s price recommendation becomes a risk when it operates as indirect price-fixing among directly competing members: the 2018 Competition Law bans restrictive agreements even when dressed as an association document, and the association itself can be sanctioned as a related organisation.
Frequently asked questions
1. What risk does association membership carry?
An industry association’s price recommendation becomes a risk when it operates as indirect price-fixing among directly competing members: the 2018 Competition Law bans restrictive agreements even when dressed as an association document, and the association itself can be sanctioned as a related organisation. The accompanying file for this question alone: the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received.
2. How do we exit the price arrangement?
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement. The accompanying file for this question alone: the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received.
3. Can we file for leniency separately?
An industry association’s price recommendation becomes a risk when it operates as indirect price-fixing among directly competing members: the 2018 Competition Law bans restrictive agreements even when dressed as an association document, and the association itself can be sanctioned as a related organisation. The accompanying file for this question alone: the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received.
4. What records must be kept?
Exiting correctly must leave a paper trail: the company should declare in writing that it does not follow the recommended price, send it to the association and keep the file, price independently from its own costs and record the pricing basis while the association is under investigation — silently following the recommendation and exiting only after investigation creates no legal distance Records to keep include minutes of association meetings attended, the association’s price documents, the non-adoption declaration and the company’s independent price lists; the company should also weigh its own leniency filing, because membership does not exempt each undertaking’s individual liability in the agreement. The accompanying file for this question alone: the non-adoption declaration sent to the association, the independent cost-based pricing file, and the archive of association meeting minutes and price documents received.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council