Violations against regulations on protection of personal information in e-commerce in Vietnam shall be fined up to VND 30 million

According to Article 65 of Decree No. 98/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, administrative penalties for violations against regulations on protection of personal information in e-commerce are specified as follows:

1. A fine ranging from VND 1.000.000 to VND 5.000.000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

- Formulating a personal information protection policy against regulations;

- Failing to publish the personal information protection policy at a prominent position on the e-commerce website.

2. A fine ranging from VND 5.000.000 to VND 10.000.000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

- Failing to clearly provide consumers with the personal information protection policy before or when collecting information;

- Failing to check, update, correct or remove personal information at the request of the information owner;

- Failing to provide mechanisms for information owners to clearly express their consent when collecting information via online functions on website, email, message or other methods as agreed upon by the parties;

d) Failing to provide mechanisms for information owners to decide to allow or refuse to allow the use of their personal information in the following cases: sharing, revealing or transferring information to a third party or using personal information for advertising or introduction of products and other commercial information.

3. A fine ranging from VND 10.000.000 to VND 20.000.000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

- Failing to establish mechanisms for receiving and settling consumers’ complaints about the use of their personal information for wrong purposes or beyond the notified scope;

- Failing to formulate, promulgate or implement policies for ensuring safety and security of collection and use of consumers’ personal information;

- Failing to publish policies for protection of consumers’ payment information on the website having online payment function.

4. A fine ranging from VND 20.000.000 to VND 30.000.000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

- Collecting consumers’ personal information without the prior consent of the information owner;

- Establishing mechanisms for compelling by default consumers to give consent for the sharing, revelation or use of their personal information for advertising and other commercial purposes;

 - Using consumers’ personal information against the notified purposes and scope.

E-commerce operations shall be suspended for a fixed period of 06 – 12 months if one of the violations prescribed in Clause 4 of this Article is repeated or re-committed. The violating entity is compelled to return any benefits illegally obtained from the commission of one of the violations in Clause 4 of this Article.

View more details at the Decree No. 98/2020/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, issued on August 24, 2020.

Le Vy

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