E-commerce activities via applications on mobile equipment in Vietnam: List of 15 frequently asked questions and answers

BLawyers Vietnam below presents 15 frequently asked questions and answers pursuant to Vietnamese law on electronic commerce (“E-commerce”) activities via mobile device applications.

1. How many types of applications are there in E-commerce activities?

There are a total of six types of applications under current law regulations, including:

1. Mobile application means applications installed on mobile devices with network connections that allow users to access the database of traders, organizations, and individuals to purchase and sell goods, and supply or use services, including goods sale applications and E-commerce service provision applications;
2. Goods sale application means an E-commerce application on mobile equipment established by traders, organizations, or individuals to serve commercial promotion activities, selling goods or supplying their services;
3. An E-commerce service provision application is an E-commerce application on mobile devices established by a trader or an organization to provide an environment for other traders, organizations and individuals to conduct commercial activities, including E-commerce trading floor applications, online auction applications and online sales promotion applications;
4. An E-commerce trading floor application is a mobile application that allows traders, organizations and individuals who are not owners of the application to carry out part or all the process of buying and selling goods or services on it;
5. An online sales promotion application is a mobile application set up by a trader or an organization to perform sales promotions for goods and services of other traders, organizations, and individuals according to the terms of the promotion service contract; and
6. An online auction application is a mobile application that provides solutions for traders, organizations and individuals who are not the owners of the application to organize auctions for their goods.

2. When are the buyer and seller via the mobile application deemed to have officially entered into a contract?

1. When using the mobile application’s online ordering feature, a contract is considered to be concluded when the consumer receives a response from the seller (who may be a trader, an organization, or an individual) approving the proposal to enter into a contract.
2. If the object of a contract is digital content or online services and the acceptance of the proposal for a contract conclusion is shown by delivering products or supplying services, the review and confirmation mechanism must meet the following requirements:

• • Displaying the product or service name, the total amount that customers have to pay for such goods or services, and the payment method that will be applied;
  • Permitting customers to cancel or confirm the contract proposal after reviewing the above information.

3. What are the principles of mobile application notification and registration?

1. Traders and organizations who own mobile applications with both goods sale and E-commerce service provision functions only need to register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (the “MOIT”) as prescribed.
2. Traders, organizations, and individuals only need to notify or register once for a mobile application, regardless of the application’s different versions.

4. How is the notification procedure for goods sale application carried out?

It has 04 steps in common as follows:

Step 1: Traders, organizations, and individuals register for an online.gov login account by providing information according to the form.

Step 2: Within 03 working days, traders, organizations, and individuals receive results from the MOIT via the registered email address regarding one of the following contents:

1. Circumstance 1: Full registration information. Traders, organizations, and individuals are granted a login account to the system and proceed to the next step.
2. Circumstance 2: Registration is rejected or requires supplementation. Traders, organizations, and individuals must re-register or supplement information as required.

Step 3: After being granted the login account to the system, traders, organizations, and individuals must proceed to re-register or supplement the required information.

Step 4: Within 03 working days, traders, organizations, and individuals receive responses from the MOIT via the registered email address regarding one of the following contents:

1. Confirm that the declaration information is complete and valid; or
2. Indicate that the declared information is incomplete or invalid. In this case, traders, organizations, and individuals must return to Step 3 to re-declare or supplement information as required.

Traders, organizations, and individuals are in charge of following up on the progress of their files via email or access accounts given to update and modify information as required.

Within 10 working days of receiving a request for additional information in Step 4 as prescribed, if traders, organizations, or individuals do not respond, the documents will be terminated, and they must re-notify their files from Step 3.

5. Is it necessary to update the information of the good sale application whenever there is a change?

Case by case, traders, organizations, and individuals must notify the MOIT within 07 working days from the date of any change in the following information:

1. Application name;
2. Storage address or application download address;
3. Type of goods, and services introduced on the application;
4. Name of the trader, organization or name of the individual owning the application;
5. Head office address of the trader, organization or permanent address of the individual;
6. Number, date, and place of issuance of the business registration certificate of traders, or number, date of issuance and issuer of the organization’s establishment decision or individual’s tax identification number; and
7. Name, title, identification card number, phone number, and email address of the trader’s representative or person in charge of the sales application.

6. What responsibilities do traders, organizations, and individuals who own a good sale application have?

The owner of the good sale application has 07 following obligations as follows:

1. To notify the MOIT if the application has an online ordering function.
2. To provide the following information on their applications:
   • Name and address of head office (for traders and organizations), or name and permanent address (for individuals);
   • Telephone number, email address or another online contact method.
3. To protect consumers’ rights in E-commerce activities on mobile applications:
   • Complying with obligations to protect consumers’ personal information;
   • Notifying consumers about what information their application will collect on mobile devices when such application is installed and used;
   • Not allowed by default to force consumers to use attached services when installing and using their applications.
4. To implement regulations on the operation of an online ordering function if the goods sale application has an online ordering function.
5. To provide information on their business situation when requested by competent state agencies to serve the making of E-commerce statistics, inspection and examination and handling of violations in E-commerce activities.
6. To comply with the laws on payment, advertising, sales promotion, protection of intellectual property rights and consumers’ rights and other related laws when selling goods or providing services.
7. If using a goods sale application to do business in goods, and services belonging to conditional business and services categories, they must fully comply with the law on business conditions for such goods and services; at the same time, they must publicize the application number, and date and place of issuance of the certificate of business eligibility for goods and services if such certificate is required by law.

7. How is the procedure of registering an E-commerce service provision application carried out?

It has 05 steps in common as follows:

Step 1: Traders and organizations register for a login account at www.online.gov.vn by providing the following information:

1. Name of trader or organization;
2. Business registration number of the trader, the organization’s establishment decision number;
3. Fields of business;
4. Address of the trader or organization’s headquarters;
5. Contact information.

Step 2: Within 03 working days, traders and organizations receive results from the MOIT via registered email regarding one of the following contents:

1. If the account registration information is complete, traders and organizations are granted a login account to the system and proceed to Step 3;
2. If the account registration is rejected or requires additional information, traders and organizations must re-register or supplement the information as required.

Step 3: After being granted a login account to the system, traders and organizations log in, select the function “Register E-commerce service provision application”, declare information according to the form, and attach registration documents.

Step 4: Within 07 working days, traders and organizations receive responses from the MOIT via registered email regarding one of the following contents:

1. Confirm that the registration file is complete, and valid; request that traders and organizations proceed to Step 5;
2. Notify that the registration file is invalid or requires additional information. In this case, traders and organizations return to Step 3 to re-declare or supplement information as required.

Step 5: After receiving the notification confirming that the application is complete and valid, traders and organizations send a complete registration file (hard copy) to the MOIT (Department of E-commerce and Information Technology).

Traders and organizations are responsible for following up on the handling of the documents via email or the access account granted to update and modify information as required.

Within 30 working days from the date of receiving the notification for supplements of information in Step 4, if traders and organizations do not respond, their registration file on the system will be terminated, and they must re-register from the beginning.

8. What documents are required for registering an E-commerce service provision application?

The documents required for registering an E-commerce service provision application include 03 following main documents:

1. Application form for registering an E-commerce service provision application;
2. A certified copy of the establishment decision (for organizations), a business registration certificate, investment registration certificate, or investment license (for traders);
3. An E-commerce service provision plan, including the following contents:

• Organizational operating model, including service provision, promotion, and marketing both online and offline;
• Structure, features, and key information items on the service-providing application;
• Rights and responsibilities between traders and organizations providing E-commerce services and service users.

9. Is it necessary to update the information of the E-commerce service provision application when there is a change?

Case by case, traders and organizations must notify the MOIT within 07 working days from the date of changes to the following information:

1. Change the name, storage address or application download address;
2. Change the name of the traders or organizations;
3. Change the representative of the traders, or person in charge of the E-commerce service provision application;
4. Change the transaction office address or contact information;
5. Change regulations and transaction conditions on the E-commerce service provision application;
6. Change the terms of the service provision contract;
7. Change or supplement services provided on the application;
8. Other changes as prescribed by the MOIT.

10. How is the procedure for canceling and terminating the registration of an E-commerce service provision application carried out?

1. For the termination of registration of an E-commerce service provision application, traders and organizations must notify the MOIT at least 07 working days in advance to terminate the registration. This notification is carried out online through the access account granted or by sending a direct or postal message to the MOIT.
2. In addition, traders and organizations will have their registration canceled in the following cases:

• Engaging in prohibited acts in E-commerce activities;
• Failing to report obligations and continuing to relapse after being reminded by the MOIT (Department of E-commerce and Information Technology);
• Being suspended from E-commerce activities according to a competent state agency’s decision on violation handling;
• Failing to fulfill the responsibilities of the owner of an E-commerce service provision application and relapse after being reminded by the MOIT.

11. Is it possible for traders to re-register E-commerce service provision applications?

Traders are able to re-register E-commerce service provision applications in the following cases:

1. Traders who receive the transfer of E-commerce service provision applications must re-register the application within 30 days from the date of transfer.
2. In case traders have their application deregistered due to failure to fulfill reporting obligations and not performing the responsibilities of the owner of the E-commerce service provision application, they can re-register after having remedied their violations which led to the deregistration.

12. What are the responsibilities of traders, organizations, and individuals owning E-commerce service provision applications related to goods sale applications?

Traders, organizations, and individuals who own goods sale applications have the following responsibilities:

1. To register their applications with the MOIT as prescribed.
2. To provide and publicize on the application the following information:
   • 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 the applications;
   • Policies for protecting users’ personal information of the application as prescribed;
   • Measures to handle infringements of consumers’ rights in transactions carried out via their applications.
3. To request traders, organizations, and individuals who use the applications for goods sale and service provide the following information when registering to use the service:
   • Name and address of the head office of traders or organizations or name and address of permanent residence of individuals;
   • Number, date and place of issuance of the enterprise registration certificate of traders, or number, date of issuance and issuer of the organization’s establishment decision or individual’s personal tax identification number;
   • Telephone number or another online contact method.
4. To achieve registration information of traders, organizations, and individuals using the application and regularly update relevant changes and supplements.
5. To establish a mechanism to allow traders, organizations, and individuals who use the application to carry out the process of entering into a contract if the application has an online ordering function.
6. To conduct the responsibilities according to regulations on providing online promotion services if their application has similar functions as online promotion websites.
7. To comply with regulations on online auction services if their application has an online auction function.
8. To apply necessary measures to ensure information security related to business secrets of traders, organizations, individuals and consumers’ personal information.
9. To prevent and remove from their application information on sale of goods and services belonging to the list of goods and services prohibited from business according to the law.
10. To remove from the application information on the sale of counterfeit goods, imitated 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.
11. To request sellers of goods or services on the list of conditional goods and services on their application to provide a certificate of business eligibility for those goods and services (if such certificate is required by law).
12. To provide information and assist state management agencies in investigating law-breaking business acts using their applications.
13. To provide information on their business situation when requested by competent state agencies to serve E-commerce statistics, inspection, examination activities and handling of violations.

13. What are the responsibilities of traders, organizations, and individuals using E-commerce service provision applications to sell goods and services related to goods sale applications?

Responsibilities of traders, organizations, and individuals in using E-commerce service provision applications for goods sale and services, including:

1. To fully and accurately provide information to traders and organizations owning the E-commerce service provision application when registering to use the application;
2. To fully provide information about goods and services if allowing customers to place orders online;
3. To ensure the accuracy and truthfulness of information about goods and services provided on the application; and
4. To provide information about their business condition when requested by competent state agencies to serve E-commerce statistics activities.

14. Are traders and organizations owning E-commerce service provision applications required to report their activities?

Yes. Traders and organizations owning E-commerce service provision applications must report their activities as follows:

1. Before 15 January annually, traders and organizations building E-commerce service provision applications must report statistical figures of the preceding year’s performance to the MOIT.
2. Reporting is carried out online through the trader’s account at the E-commerce Management Portal or in writing by post.

15. Is it possible to set up an online payment function for mobile applications?

Yes. The establishment of an online payment function for mobile application is stipulated as follows:

1. If the mobile application has an online payment function, traders, organizations, and individuals are obliged to establish a mechanism for customers to review and confirm detailed information about each payment transaction before making a payment.
2. Traders, organizations, and individuals who own mobile applications with the online payment function must implement the following responsibilities:
   • Traders, organizations, and individuals who own E-commerce service provision applications with online payment functions must assure the safety and security of customers’ payment transactions, handle complaints, and pay damages if customers’ payment information through E-commerce service provision applications is changed, deleted, destroyed, copied, revealed, or removed illegally or appropriated, causing damage to customers.
   • If self-developing a payment solution to serve only their own E-commerce service provision application, traders, organizations, and individuals owning the application must apply the following measures to assure safety and security for customers’ payment transactions.
   • Traders, organizations, and individuals owning E-commerce service provision applications with online payment functions must publicize on their application a policy on payment information security for customers.

The above is not official advice from BLawyers Vietnam. If you have any questions or suggestions about the above, please contact us at consult@blawyersvn.com. BLawyers Vietnam would love to hear from you.

Date: 06 October 2023

Writers: Tinh Nguyen and Uyen Tran