The Jurisdiction Of The Court To Resolve Commercial Disputes in Vietnam

When a dispute occurs, the parties of the commercial dispute will resolve the dispute by mutual agreement, mediation or filing a lawsuit in Court or commercial arbitration. In this article, Phuoc & Partners will present the jurisdiction of the Court to resolve commercial disputes.

1. The jurisdiction of the Court to resolve commercial disputes according to cases

Article 30 of the Civil Procedure Code 2015 (“CPC 2015”) provides the following commercial disputes subject to the jurisdiction of Court:

• Disputes arising from commercial activities among individuals and/or organizations with business registration, which are all for the purposes of profits subject to the jurisdiction of the Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Disputes over intellectual property rights or technology transfers among individuals or organizations, which are all for the purposes of profits subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Disputes between persons who are not members of a company, but involve in a transaction in the transfer of contributed capital with the company and/or members of the company subject the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Disputes between a company and its member; disputes between a limited liability company and its manager or between a joint stock company and a member of its Board of Management, its Director or its General Director, or among members of a company regarding the establishment, operation, dissolution, merge, consolidation, division, split, handover of the property of a company or organizational transformation of a company subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Other disputes of commercial subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes (except for cases within the jurisdiction of other agencies and organizations as prescribed by law).

Specially, the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes will not arise if parties of commercial disputes have a valid and enforceable arbitration agreement.

2. The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes according to the adjudicating level

2.1 The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes at a district court (Civil Court of People’s Court of a district): to settle disputes arising from commercial and business activities among individuals, organizations with business registration and purpose of profits according to the first-instance procedure;

2.2 The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes at a provincial court (Economic Court of People’s Court of province): to settle disputes arising from the following commercial and business activities according to the first-instance procedure:

• Disputes over intellectual property rights or technology transfers among individuals or organizations, which are all for the purposes of profits subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Disputes between persons who are not members of a company, but involve in a transaction in the transfer of contributed capital with the company and/or members of the company subject the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Disputes between a company and its member; disputes between a limited liability company and its manager or between a joint-stock company and a member of its Board of Management, its Director or its General Director, or among members of a company regarding the establishment, operation, dissolution, merge, consolidation, division, split, handover of the property of a company or organizational transformation of a company subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes;
• Other disputes of commercial subject to the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes (except for cases within the jurisdiction of other agencies and organizations as prescribed by law);
• Commercial disputes which involve parties or properties in foreign countries or which must be judicially entrusted to representative agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam overseas or to foreign courts/competent agencies, shall not fall under the jurisdiction of the People’s Courts of districts; and
• The Economic Court of People’s Courts of provinces shall have the jurisdiction to resolve according to first-instance procedures the commercial cases falling under the jurisdiction of the People’s Courts of districts, which are taken up by the People’s Courts of provinces for settlement when necessary or at the request of People’s Courts of districts.

3. The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes according to the territory

The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes according to the territory is determined as follows: a place where the defendant resides, works or locates its headquarter; a place where the plaintiff resides, works or locates its headquarter according to the parties’ agreement or a place where disputed real east is located.

4. The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes according to a plaintiff’s choice

The jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes according to a plaintiff’s selection in commercial disputes as follows:

• If the plaintiff does not know where the defendant resides or works or where his/her head-office is located, the plaintiff may petition the Courts of the area where the defendant last resides or works or where the head-office of the defendant is last located or where the defendant’ properties are located to settle the case;
• If the dispute arises from the operation of a branch of an organization, the plaintiff may petition the Court of the area where the organization’s head-office is located or where its branch is located to settle it;
• If the defendant does not have residence place, work place or head-office in Vietnam or the case is related to disputes over alimonies, the plaintiff may petition the Court of the area where he/she resides or works to settle the case;
• If the dispute arises from a contractual relation, the plaintiff may petition the Court of the area where the contract is performed to settle the case;
• If the defendants reside, work or are headquartered in different places, the plaintiff may petition the Court of the area where one of the defendants resides or works or is headquartered to settle the case;
• If the dispute of real east which exists in different localities, the plaintiff may request the Court of the area where one of such real east exist to settle the dispute.

The above is an overview of the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes. If you have trouble with legal issues regarding the jurisdiction of Court to resolve commercial disputes, please contact us: Phuoc & Partners is a professional consulting firm established in Vietnam which currently has nearly 100 members working in three offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang. Phuoc & Partners. It is rated as one of the leading consulting firms specializing in business law in Vietnam that has leading practice areas in the legal market such as Labour and Employment, Taxation, Merger and acquisition, Litigation. We are confident in providing customers with optimal and effective service.