With such growth, an e-commerce law is needed to enhance the management of the millions of people who are engaged in online trading.

In its first report about Vietnam's e-commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed that Vietnam ‘began and proceeded quite quickly on the first leg of the New Silk Road."

While B2C e-commerce in Vietnam was just $2.97 billion in 2014, the figure soared to $25 billion in 2024, which meant an average growth rate of 26.7 percent per annum, accounting for 9 percent of total retail sales of goods and consumer services. The proportion of the population engaged in e-commerce was 60 percent with purchase value of $400 per head per annum on average.

The Vietnamese e-commerce market is an attractive investment destination for many foreign investors, enabling Vietnamese consumers to become global consumers. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can take full advantage of modern platforms to develop their goods distribution channels.

In recent years, Vietnam has issued policies and legal documents to regulate the relationships among subjects involved in e-commerce activities. However, rapid technological advancements and the emergence of numerous new business models have caused current regulations on e-commerce management to become out of date.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), therefore, has proposed building a law on e-commerce to enhance the management of millions of subjects in the e-commerce market.

In its statement about such a law, MOIT proposed several policies.

These include subjects participating in e-commerce activities, along with their related rights and obligations. The regulation is extremely important because there are numerous issues regarding these responsibilities.

For e-commerce intermediaries, the regulations describe the responsibilities of ecommerce platforms in many different legal documents. In Resolution 09, the Government asked MOIT to amend regulations on identifying sellers on e-commerce platforms through VNeID.

Seller identification will mitigate risks such as fraud, asset appropriation, and issues related to commercial fraud and counterfeit goods.

The ministry also pointed out that some social networks not only serve as a place for buyers and sellers to exchange information about goods, but also provide features that support e-commerce exchanges. There is a growing trend of turning normal apps into super apps, or multi-purpose apps. And therefore, there must be regulations that manage and classify the apps.

There is still no mechanism which effectively control goods quality and collects taxes from foreign companies that provide services to Vietnam, which results in loss of revenue to the state budget and difficulties in protecting consumers.

As it is unclear who the sellers are on e-commerce, consumers are at a disadvantage. Particularly, when sellers are not identified, they are likely to evade tax. Meanwhile, management agencies find it difficult to deal with fraud and illegal activities.

These problems have led to unhealthy competition. Legal businesses which observe the current regulations on registration and paying tax to the state are at a disadvantage compared with anonymous sellers who circumvent the law.

Consumers who conduct transactions on e-commerce platforms are facing difficulties because of the lack of information about products and services, such as sellers/providers’ addresses, phone numbers and others.

Responsibilities for intermediaries

In its draft proposal, MOIT discusses the responsibilities of the units providing e-commerce support services.

The Ministry indicates that Decree 52 mentions the responsibilities of units providing technical infrastructure and e-commerce support services, such as logistics. However, there is an absence of specific regulations, failing to fully meet current practical demands.

This leads to inadequate management and supervision of intermediary models. Without clear regulations, these entities might not adhere to requirements on security, service quality, and consumer protection, possibly resulting in an unsafe trading environment and challenges for consumers and businesses engaging in e-commerce activities. Risks of data breaches, privacy invasions, and security issues in electronic transactions also persist.

Without clear cooperation between intermediary units and state management agencies, addressing legal violations will be complex.

Tam An