Foreign traders and entities to comply with new e-commerce rules from 1 January 2022
20 October 2021
On 25 September 2021, the Vietnam Government issued Decree No. 85/2021/ND-CP (“Decree 85”) amending and supplementing several articles of Decree No. 52/2013/ND-CP on E-commerce. Decree 85 will come into effect on 1 January 2022.
Decree 85 revises the rules on the provision of cross-border e-commerce services in Vietnam. Foreign traders and entities operating websites providing e-commerce services with a Vietnam domain (.vn), in the Vietnamese language, and logging over 100,000 transactions from Vietnam annually, will be subject to Decree 85 and must observe the following:
- Register their e-commerce activities with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, establish representative offices or appoint authorised representatives in Vietnam; and
- Representative offices established or appointed authorised representatives must work with Vietnam’s State management agencies to prevent transactions of goods and services that violate the nation’s laws.
It should also be noted that social network platforms may also be considered an e-commerce trading floor.
Decree 85 also requires e-commerce trading floors to undertake the following:
- Take down information of infringing goods and services within 24 hours of receipt of a request from competent authorities;
- Provide information on individuals and/or organisations suspected of infringing e-commerce rules; and
- Update key words on a regular basis as recommended by the authorities and filter information relating to infringing goods and services before they are uploaded and displayed on e-commerce platforms.