Hanoi-Vietnam: Guidelines for settling disputes in E-Commerce

Hanoi-Vietnam: Guidelines for settling disputes in E-Commerce (Image from the Internet)

1. Guidelines for settling disputes in e-commerce

According to Article 76 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, the settlement of disputes in e-commerce is as follows:

• Traders, organizations, and individuals owning e-commerce websites are responsible for receiving and processing customers' complaints related to contracts concluded on their e-commerce websites.

• Disputes between Traders, organizations, and individuals selling goods, and providing services to customers during contract execution must be settled based on the contract terms published on the website at the time of contract conclusion and relevant legal provisions.

• Traders, organizations, and individuals selling goods and providing services must not exploit their advantages in the electronic environment to unilaterally resolve disputes without the consent of customers.

• Dispute settlement must be through negotiation between the parties, mediation, arbitration, or courts according to current Dispute settlement procedures and regulations.

• Settlement of complaints and disputes on the e-commerce service provider's website:

  • Traders and service providers must clearly publish on their websites the process of receiving, the responsibility of handling customer complaints, and the mechanism for resolving disputes related to contracts concluded on their e-commerce websites;

  • If Traders and service providers do not publish information according to point a Clause 5 Article 76 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, they must directly take responsibility for receiving, processing customer complaints, and resolving disputes related to contracts concluded on their e-commerce websites;

  • Traders and service providers may participate in mediating disputes arising between customers and sellers on their e-commerce websites.

2. Responsibilities of Traders, Organizations, and Individuals Owning E-Commerce Websites with Online Payment Functions

According to Article 74 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, the responsibilities of Traders, organizations, and individuals owning e-commerce websites with online payment functions are as follows:

• Traders, organizations, and individuals owning e-commerce websites with online payment functions must ensure the safety and confidentiality of customers' payment transactions, handle complaints, and compensate for damages in cases where customers' payment information on e-commerce websites is altered, deleted, destroyed, copied, disclosed, relocated without authorization, or stolen, causing damage to customers.

• If developing their payment solutions to serve their e-commerce websites, traders, organizations, and individuals must apply the following measures to ensure the safety and confidentiality of customers' payment transactions:

  • Establish an information system supporting payment activities that ensures 24/7 online connectivity. Maintenance time should not exceed 12 hours per maintenance session and must be notified to customers in advance;

  • Encrypt information and use security protocols to ensure no information leakage during transmission;

  • Deploy applications capable of detecting, warning, and preventing unauthorized access and network attacks on their online payment information system;

  • Have methods to control system access rights, and control access to the locations where their payment information systems are located;

  • Implement procedures, backup systems, and data recovery when their payment information systems fail, ensuring data backups to storage devices or online data backups;

  • Store transaction data for the period specified in the Law on Accounting 2015;

  • If customers pay before receiving goods and services, the payment must be held by payment service providers, and customers must be provided with tools to monitor their payment balances on the system.

• Traders, organizations, and individuals owning e-commerce websites with online payment functions must publish on their websites policies regarding the confidentiality of customers' payment information.

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