8 prohibited acts in the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended)

On the morning of June 22, continuing the 5th session, with 468/477 delegates participating in the vote in favor (accounting for 94.74%), the National Assembly passed the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) consisting of 7 chapters and 54 articles with a number of new points compared to the current law.

Accordingly, the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) stipulates prohibited acts in electronic transactions, specifically:

Taking advantage of electronic transactions to infringe upon national and ethnic interests, national security, social order and safety, public interests, and the legitimate rights and interests of agencies, organizations and individuals;

Illegally obstructing or preventing the process of creating, sending, receiving, storing data messages or committing other acts aimed at destroying the information system serving electronic transactions;

Illegally collecting, providing, using, disclosing, displaying, distributing, or trading data messages;

Illegally deleting, destroying, forging, copying, falsifying, or moving part or all of a data message; creating a data message to commit an illegal act;

Fraud, forgery, appropriation or illegal use of electronic transaction accounts, electronic certificates, electronic signature certificates, electronic signatures; obstructing the selection of electronic transaction implementation and other acts strictly prohibited by law.

Policy - 8 prohibited acts in the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) — National Assembly deputies participating in voting on the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended).

Before voting to pass the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended), the National Assembly listened to reports explaining, accepting and revising this draft Law.

Accordingly, in terms of scope, the Law only regulates the implementation of transactions by electronic means, not the content, form, and conditions of transactions in different fields, including the fields of defense and security. Transactions in any field will be regulated by specialized laws of that field.

Regarding the responsibility for State management of electronic transactions , the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) stipulates that the Ministry of Information and Communications is the focal agency responsible to the Government for presiding over and coordinating with ministries and ministerial-level agencies to carry out State management of electronic transactions. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities shall coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communications to carry out State management of electronic transactions in the fields and areas within the scope of assigned tasks and powers.

The Minister of National Defense shall perform state management of electronic transactions in the field of cryptography and digital signatures for specialized public service on the basis of national technical standards and regulations on digital signatures in accordance with the provisions of law.

Regarding the legal value of data messages, the scope of regulation of the Law only regulates the implementation of transactions by electronic means, not the content, conditions, and methods of transactions.

To be consistent with the scope of regulation, the provisions on notarization, authentication, consular legalization, and electronic storage in Articles 9, 13, and 19 of the draft Law are only referred to without specific regulations to avoid overlap and duplication in the legal system.

Therefore, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly retains this content as in the draft Law and does not add transitional provisions related to notarization and authentication in Article 53.

Policy - 8 prohibited acts in the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) (Figure 2). — 468/477 delegates voted in favor.

Regarding electronic signatures, there are suggestions to add other types of electronic signatures in addition to digital signatures that meet all the conditions to ensure the signature is safe and legally valid.

Regarding this issue, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly said that, according to Clause 11, Article 3 of the draft Law, an electronic signature is used to confirm the signing subject and confirm that subject's approval of the information in the signed data message and must be created in the form of electronic data attached or logically combined with the data message to be considered an electronic signature.

Currently, other forms of electronic authentication such as scanned signatures, image signatures, one-time passwords (OTP), text messages (SMS), etc. are not electronic signatures.

However, to be consistent with the practical implementation of operations in the banking and customs sectors, etc. and to promote electronic transactions, Clause 4, Article 22 of the draft Law stipulates that the use of these forms of confirmation must be carried out in accordance with relevant legal provisions.

Regarding the conclusion and implementation of electronic contracts, there are opinions suggesting more specific and detailed regulations on storage services and confirmation of the integrity of data messages to avoid duplication of functions and tasks of the Ministry of Information and Communications with the Ministry of Justice and the Provincial People's Committees (regarding authentication).

According to the National Assembly Standing Committee, the service of storing and confirming the integrity of data messages specified in Clause 1, Article 32 is to ensure that information is created, sent, received and stored without being edited or deleted in the electronic environment.

Meanwhile, current laws on certification and notarization regulate activities of certifying copies from originals; certifying signatures in documents; certifying contracts; notarizing and certifying the authenticity and legality of contracts in real environments.

Therefore, these two types of services are different and the provisions in the draft Law on the functions and tasks of the Ministry of Information and Communications related to this content will not overlap the functions and tasks with the Ministry of Justice and the Provincial People's Committees regarding certification activities.

The Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) was passed by the National Assembly at the 5th session and will take effect from July 1, 2024 .

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