Compliance with the law is key
E-commerce is growing rapidly, leading to the requirement to complete the legal framework to ensure a transparent and fair business environment.
On July 24, at the conference to deploy the Law on E-commerce and related regulations with the theme "Building a safe and transparent e-commerce ecosystem", Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade - said that in the past year, many laws have been promulgated and amended to complete the legal framework serving the two-level local government model and innovate economic management mechanisms.
According to Mr. Vu, among them, the Law on E-commerce is one of the most complex laws because it directly affects the thinking, habits and behavior of people and businesses in the digital environment.
If businesses firmly grasp and apply the provisions of law correctly, this will be a great opportunity to develop in the context of rapidly growing digital economy" - Mr. Vu assessed.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the scale of e-commerce reached about 12 billion USD, with a growth rate always at double digits. If the goal of the economy is double-digit GDP growth, e-commerce has been and is realizing that. The scale of the market is increasing, which means many opportunities for businesses. However, only units that understand correctly, implement correctly and master legal regulations can effectively exploit this potential.
Many new regulations increase transparency and protect subjects
Sharing the new points of the Law on E-commerce, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan - Director of the Center for E-commerce and Digital Technology Development (Ministry of Industry and Trade) - said that the law adds many regulations to improve transparency and responsibility of market participants.
Accordingly, e-commerce platforms must publicly disclose display priority criteria, product arrangement algorithms; and at the same time strengthen the management of livestream sales activities through account authentication regulations and violation handling procedures.
The law also requires platforms to remove violating content within 24 hours from receiving a request from functional agencies, and proactively apply keyword filters to prevent counterfeit goods, smuggled goods and violating content before being displayed to users.
For cross-border e-commerce platforms with Vietnamese interfaces or generated from 100,000 transactions per year in Vietnam, the law stipulates that they must have a legal entity authorized in Vietnam and deposit at least 20 billion VND at a domestic bank to ensure tax obligations as well as compensation responsibilities for consumers.
Another notable new point is that from January 1, 2027, all sellers and livestreamers on intermediary platforms must carry out electronic identification (e-KYC). The law also classifies four groups of e-commerce platforms to apply management mechanisms suitable for each model.
Assessing the impact of the law, Mr. Nguyen Tan Phong - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) - said that Ho Chi Minh City has always been the leading locality in the country in terms of the scale of the e-commerce market, and is also the place that is affected earliest by new policies.
According to Mr. Phong, the implementation of the Law on E-commerce will create both challenges and opportunities. In the initial stage, there will certainly be many difficulties, but businesses need to proactively build a roadmap in the spirit of "do right first, do enough later"; immediately implement the regulations that have taken effect and prepare early for contents with a roadmap to 2027. This will be an important foundation to help businesses develop sustainably in the digital business environment.
