Government to sanction unregistered e-commerce sites

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In November 2013 the government enacted Decree 185/2013/ND-CP detailing the penalties on administrative violations in commercial activities, production of or trading in counterfeit or banned goods, and protection of consumer rights.

Accordingly, from January 2014, individuals and businesses will be fined from VND5-20 million ($238-$476) if they set up a sales e-commerce website without notifying competent authorities.

However, in early June 2014, only 1,889 sales e-commerce websites had notified and just 175 websites providing e-commerce services had registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s E-commerce and Information Technology Department.

This is only a drop in the bucket, as in reality there are several hundred thousand e-commerce websites operating in Vietnam.

Without registration or having informed the government, these websites face administrative sanctions.

In the recent past, the E-Commerce and Information Technology Department and Hanoi Market Management Bureau did a spot check at Nam Viet Company Limited, based in Hanoi’s Hoang Mai district, which was fined VND30 million ($1,430) for having established a sales website without informing state agencies.

In an earlier development, Hoa Nam Import Export JSC in Hanoi’s Tu Liem district incurred a fine of VND30 million as it similarly launched an e-commerce site without registering it.

A host of other firms, such as TechLand, Ho Guom Investment and Development, and Watch Shop 88 also received administrative sanctions for similar faults.

In Ho Chi Minh City, only around 1,100 e-commerce websites have complete their registration procedures against the projected 140,000 businesses operating in the city, 150,000 domain names registered by businesses and individuals, and about 86,000 websites started by individuals and businesses.

Under Decree 185, individuals failing to complete these required procedures would incur a fine of VND15 million ($714). For businesses the fine would be double, at VND30 million ($1,430).

In fact, the procedures for registering or notifying the government are very simple. Businesses only need to log on at www.online.gov.vn (the MoIT portal managing e-commerce businesses) and fill in an application to open an account. They will be provided the account within three days and take the next steps to register. But in fact, many firms have ignored this procedure.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Dung, an expert from the Vietnam E-commerce Association, in the coming time market watchdogs will step up their efforts to check and regulate e-commerce websites, particularly those that have not yet registered with the government. He asserted that violators would incur due sanctions.