E-commerce in Vietnam has developed strongly and it is necessary to develop an E-commerce Law to have a more effective management tool for this activity.
Vietnam e-commerce is growing strongly
Policy Impact Assessment Report of Proposed Law Making E-commerce A report recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that in the context of general integration into global trade, Vietnam's e-commerce has recorded strong growth.
Vietnam's B2C e-commerce turnover in 2014 only reached 2.97 billion USD, by 2024 it had reached 25 billion USD, equivalent to an average increase of 26.7%/year, accounting for about 9% of total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue nationwide. The proportion of the population participating in e-commerce reached over 60% with an average shopping value of about 400 USD/person/year. E-commerce has become a popular shopping method, especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In recent years, Vietnam has issued policies and legal documents to regulate the relationship between entities participating in e-commerce activities in the direction of creating favorable conditions and encouraging people and businesses to gradually participate in e-commerce activities and become familiar with online business, creating the premise and legal basis for the strong development of e-commerce in Vietnam today.
In Vietnam, in 2003, the Ministry of Trade (now The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) announced the first Vietnam E-commerce Report, in which it affirmed that, by 2003, "we had started and moved quite quickly on the first leg of the New Silk Road", which is considered an important milestone for the development of e-commerce activities in our country.
To date, Vietnam has basically built a legal framework for e-commerce. Specifically, the 11th National Assembly issued the Law on Electronic Transactions in 2005, officially recognizing the legal value of electronic transactions in general, including the business and commercial sectors. The Government also issued Decree No. 57/2006/ND-CP dated June 9, 2006 on e-commerce.
To regulate the activities of e-commerce contract conclusion, the Minister of Industry and Trade issued Circular No. 09/2008/TT-BCT dated July 21, 2008 guiding the Decree on e-commerce on providing information and concluding contracts on e-commerce websites. In response to the development of e-commerce platforms and e-commerce websites, the Minister of Industry and Trade issued Circular No. 46/2010/TT-BCT dated December 31, 2010 regulating the management of e-commerce websites, selling goods or providing services...
Most recently, on June 22, 2023, the 15th National Assembly issued the Law on Electronic Transactions 2023, helping to create a complete, comprehensive, and favorable legal corridor for the conversion of activities from the physical environment to the digital environment in all sectors and fields. On June 20, 2023, the National Assembly issued the Law on Consumer Rights Protection. This is an important Law project drafted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with wide impacts on many sectors and fields, including e-commerce.
In addition to the above documents, normative documents related to e-commerce activities are stipulated in many legal documents in different fields. In general, it can be said that in recent years, the legal system related to e-commerce in Vietnam has been built and continuously improved, contributing to creating a transparent e-commerce environment and protecting consumer rights.
Continue to strengthen laws on e-commerce
However, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in reality, many new technologies, models, and types of e-commerce activities have emerged, rapidly changing the manifestations and existence of e-commerce relationships.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has summarized the implementation of Decree No. 52/2013/ND-CP of the Government on e-commerce and Decree No. 85/2021/ND-CP dated September 25, 2021 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 52/2013/ND-CP dated May 16, 2013 of the Government on e-commerce and the management practice has found that there are still many legal gaps, creating an urgent need to consolidate and perfect the legal system in a scientific, synchronous, transparent, effective and efficient manner.
At the recent conference to review the work in 2024 and deploy tasks in 2025 of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, Ms. Le Hoang Oanh - Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy stated that although Decree 85/2021/ND-CP has initial regulations on conditions applicable to entities providing cross-border e-commerce services to the Vietnamese market, state management agencies still face difficulties in managing and supervising business activities with cross-border e-commerce platforms.
In addition, many unlicensed cross-border e-commerce platforms or those in the process of licensing are still providing e-commerce services in Vietnam, selling cross-border products and goods into the Vietnamese market at low prices, causing negative impacts on the domestic consumption market, competitive pressure with domestic e-commerce platforms and greatly affecting consumer shopping behavior.
Livestream sales activities are a rapidly developing trend of e-commerce, but legal regulations on e-commerce only regulate them in general, similar to an advertising activity accompanying sales, without separate regulations on subjects participating in livestreams, minimum information fields that must be provided to viewers... The issue of controlling counterfeit goods, fake goods, banned goods, goods that infringe intellectual property rights, poor quality goods... also requires state management agencies to have more effective management tools.
The direction of the work of perfecting policies and laws on e-commerce has also received close and decisive attention and direction from the National Assembly and the Government. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted a proposal to develop the Law on E-commerce.
The Draft Law on E-commerce has a number of issues of concern, for example, e-commerce sales activities must have specific responsibilities regarding policies, regulations, information on goods, services and classification of domestic or foreign goods sold on the platform.
Regulations on providing periodic information and reporting on business situations on the platform. Specific regulations are also applied to livestreamers or consultants selling goods and services in conditional business investment sectors.
For sellers on e-commerce intermediary digital platforms, identification must be carried out in accordance with regulations on identification and electronic authentication before providing goods and services. Provide information to the intermediary platform about name, address, identification number and personal income tax code.
For cross-border e-commerce activities, it is necessary to apply for a license from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and establish a representative office in Vietnam or appoint an authorized representative who is a legal entity in Vietnam. At the same time, it is responsible for authenticating foreign sellers and compensating buyers when there are violations on the platform.
In a quick exchange with reporters from the Industry and Trade Newspaper on the afternoon of January 20, economic expert Vu Vinh Phu emphasized that e-commerce is developing strongly in the world and Vietnam is no exception. However, the legal framework for this activity still has many loopholes, especially in terms of quality management, origin of goods, etc.
“In that context, the draft Law on E-commerce proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade is timely and quick. I hope that this draft Law will catch up with the strong development trend of e-commerce in the market, helping to create a strong enough corridor to both perform well the role of state management and create conditions for e-commerce to develop strongly in Vietnam.” – expert Vu Vinh Phu expects.
| In the draft Law on E-commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Trade identifies the following major policies: First, supplement and unify concepts according to current legal regulations. Second, regulates forms of e-commerce activities, subjects participating in e-commerce activities, and related rights and obligations. Third, regulate the responsibilities of units providing e-commerce support services. Fourth, Regulations on electronic contract certification services in commerce. Fifth , regulations on the construction and development of e-commerce. |
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