A Berlin court has rejected most of the defamation claims filed by Vietnamese billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong and VinFast Germany GmbH against exiled journalist Le Trung Khoa, ruling that the plaintiffs must bear nearly 88% of total legal costs, a major setback for Vingroup’s international “legal blitz” strategy.
The Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin II) delivered its verdict on November 4, 2025, after a public hearing that drew attention from European journalists and Vietnamese dissidents.
The case (No. 27 O 329/25 eV) centered on a 2022 Thoibao.de video report titled “VinFast’s disastrous car launch in Germany accused of bribing journalists.”
According to the official judgment reviewed by Asia Times, the court ruled that Khoa is prohibited only from repeating a specific bribery allegation that could not be substantiated with documentary evidence.
However, all other censorship demands made by VinFast and Vuong were dismissed, including attempts to block broader reporting on VinFast’s failed European debut and its business practices.
The court emphasized that Thoibao.de’s content, published exclusively in Vietnamese and accessed primarily from Vietnam, fell under Germany’s constitutional protection of press freedom and did not warrant foreign corporate censorship.
“There is no room for censorship in Germany,” Khoa told Asia Times following the ruling. “This verdict shows that even billionaires cannot use Western courts to silence independent Vietnamese journalists.”
Failed legal blitz
The judgment orders Vuong to pay half of all court expenses, VinFast Germany GmbH to cover an additional three-eighths, and Khoa to bear only one-eighth. The decision is immediately enforceable but may be appealed.
While the ruling technically acknowledges one minor limitation, its financial and symbolic implications are clear: Vingroup’s attempt to weaponize defamation law in Europe has largely failed.
In a previous Asia Times analysis published in September entitled “Vingroup’s legal blitz won’t restore its credibility”, this reporter warned that such lawsuits would likely “fall flat abroad,” where courts uphold press freedom and investors see litigation as a symptom of deeper fragility rather than strength. The Berlin judgment now confirms that prognosis.
It demonstrates that transnational lawfare cannot compensate for structural weaknesses in Vingroup’s business empire, seen in VinFast’s mounting losses, global recalls and declining investor confidence since its Nasdaq debut in 2023.
“Lawsuits do not pay down debt,” the earlier Asia Times article concluded — and Berlin’s court has now turned that observation into a judicial fact.
The verdict sets a legal and moral precedent for Vietnamese-language journalists in exile, who have long faced harassment and takedown threats from Vingroup’s network of foreign law firms.
Vingroup previously admitted to sending or filing 68 legal notices worldwide, targeting Vietnamese-language YouTubers and bloggers in the US, Canada and Europe.
Legal experts in Berlin described the ruling as “a reaffirmation that freedom of expression cannot be subcontracted to authoritarian interests,” adding that German courts would likely reject similar corporate censorship attempts in the future.
Flagging corporate narrative
The decision also arrives as VinFast’s overseas ambitions continue to falter.
Sales in Europe remain negligible at just 84 cars registered in 2025, while North American quarterly losses have recently exceeded $800 million.
Against that backdrop, the Berlin ruling reinforces a perception that Vingroup’s global expansion has been driven as much by PR and legal maneuvering as by sustainable business fundamentals.
For Vuong, the billionaire founder once hailed as “Vietnam’s Elon Musk,” the message from Berlin is clear: credibility cannot be litigated into existence.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, widely known as Mother Mushroom, is a Vietnamese blogger, human rights advocate, and former prisoner of conscience. She is the founder & executive director of WEHEAR, a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to empowering women, supporting exiled activists and advancing independent human rights reporting.
