Vietnam: Responsibilities of traders owning e-commerce service provision applications

According to Circular No. 59/2015/TT-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, e-commerce service provision application means an e-commerce application on mobile equipment established by a trader or an organization to create an environment for other traders, organizations and individuals to carry out trade activities. E-commerce service provision applications include e-commerce trading floor applications, online auction applications and online sales promotion applications. Traders and organizations owning e- commerce service provision applications shall have the following responsibilities:

- To register their applications with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in accordance with Section 2, Chapter II of this Circular.

- To provide and publicize the following information on their applications:

+ Their responsibilities in transactions carried out via their applications;

+ Rights and obligations of involved parties carrying out transactions via their applications;

+ Mechanisms for settling complaints and disputes between parties involved in transactions carried out via their applications;

+ Policies to protect application users’ personal information under Article 69 of Decree No. 52/2013/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government;

+ Measures to handle infringements of consumers’ interests in transactions carried out via their applications.

- To request traders, organizations and individuals using their applications for goods sale and service provision to provide information under Clauses 1, 2 and 3, Article 29 of Decree No. 52/2013/NĐ-CP upon registering for use of e-commerce services.

- To keep registration information of traders, organizations and individuals using their applications and regularly update related information.

- To promulgate mechanisms permitting traders, organizations and individuals using their application to implement the process of conclusion of contracts under Articles 8 and 9 of this Circular if such applications have online ordering function.

- To implement the responsibilities prescribed in Article 41 of Decree No. 52/2013/NĐ-CP if their applications have functions similar to online promotion websites.

- To comply with Section 4, Chapter III of Decree No. 52/2013/NĐ-CP if their applications have online auction function.

- To apply necessary measures to ensure information security relating to business secrets of traders, organizations and individuals and consumers’ personal information.

- To prevent and remove from their applications information on sale of goods and services on the list of goods and services banned from business in accordance with law.

- To remove from their applications information on sale of counterfeit goods, imitate goods, smuggled goods, goods infringing upon intellectual property rights, and other infringing goods and services when detecting, or receiving well-grounded reports on, such information.

- To request persons selling via their applications goods and services on the list of goods and services subject to conditional business to provide a certificate of business eligibility for those goods and services (in case such certificate is required by law).

- To provide information and assist state management agencies in investigating law-breaking business acts using their applications.

- To provide information on their business situation at the request of competent state agencies to serve the making of e-commerce statistics, inspection and examination and handling of violations.

View more details at Circular No. 59/2015/TT-BCT of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, effective from March 31, 2016.

Thu Ba

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