Minister Nguyen Hong Dien presents the Law on E-commerce to the National Assembly

Continuing the working program of the 10th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of November 3, authorized by the Government, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien presented the Draft Law on E-commerce.

Accordingly, implementing the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the 2025 Law-making Program of the National Assembly , on October 3, the Government issued Submission 1007 and the Draft Law on E-commerce.

Reporting to the National Assembly, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said: In recent years, e-commerce has been growing very strongly (from 20-25%/year, accounting for 10% of total retail sales of goods), however, there is currently no separate law on this field. Current legal regulations (mainly 02 documents: Decree No. 52 of 2023 and Decree 85 of 2021 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 52 on e-commerce) have revealed inadequacies and problems that cannot be solved, especially new and important issues arising in practice such as: the emergence of many new business models, diverse in terms of subjects, complex in nature such as: livestream sales, multi-service and multi-platform business, tax collection, consumer rights protection, personal data protection...).

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien reports to the National Assembly on the draft Law on E-commerce. Photo: NA

Difficulties in controlling and handling counterfeit goods, banned goods, goods infringing intellectual property rights, and poor quality goods, especially in identifying sellers, tracing, and handling violations.

The challenges of cross-border e-commerce activities regarding the quality of imported goods need to be managed, along with mechanisms and policies to support e-commerce infrastructure, promote strong participation of the private economic sector and develop green and sustainable e-commerce that need to be issued to create momentum for socio-economic development.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed: The promulgation of the Law on E-commerce is very necessary and urgent in order to promptly and comprehensively institutionalize the Party's new policies on the development of e-commerce and digital economy and in accordance with international commitments of which Vietnam is a member; at the same time, overcome difficulties and inadequacies of current legal regulations, promote e-commerce to continue to develop rapidly and sustainably; protect the rights of consumers and domestic production, and actively contribute to the socio-economic development of the country in the new era.

According to Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, the process of drafting the Law has been carried out in accordance with the prescribed procedures. The drafting agency has organized many conferences and seminars, solicited opinions from ministries, branches, localities, National Assembly delegations, experts, scientists, practitioners, affected subjects and public opinions to study, absorb and complete the draft Law and related documents, report to the Government for unanimous approval, and submit to the National Assembly in Submission No. 729, dated August 29, 2025.

The draft Law has been thoroughly examined by the Economic and Financial Committee and agencies of the National Assembly; the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and the Conference of specialized National Assembly Deputies have discussed and commented. Based on the opinions of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly; the examination opinions of the Economic and Financial Committee and the opinions of specialized National Assembly Deputies, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review and revise the reports and documents in the draft Law dossier and have Submission No. 1007 dated October 30, 2025 to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval of the draft Law at this Session.

The Draft Law consists of 7 Chapters and 48 Articles, closely following 06 major policies approved by the Government, including: Regulations on types of e-commerce platforms and responsibilities of participating entities; Regulations on social networks operating e-commerce, multi-service integrated platforms; Regulations on e-commerce activities with foreign elements; Regulations on livestream sales activities, affiliate marketing; Regulations on support services for e-commerce; Regulations on policies to support the development of e-commerce in a green and sustainable direction.

The Draft Law only regulates the rights and obligations of entities using the internet platform to conduct commercial activities. Business and commercial activities and entities participating in e-commerce activities still comply with relevant specialized laws as in the physical environment.

Currently, the current legal infrastructure on e-commerce is mainly regulated in two documents: Decree 52 and Decree 85 (in which Decree 85/2021/ND-CP of the Government: Amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 52/2013/ND-CP dated May 16, 2013 of the Government on e-commerce).

Therefore, the draft Law has amended and supplemented the provisions compared to the current legal infrastructure as follows:

Firstly, supplement comprehensive legal positioning of e-commerce models, from direct sales to multi-party models; enhance platform responsibility in reviewing and supporting the recall of defective products, protecting consumers and storing transactions for inspection.

Overview of the morning session on November 3. Photo: QH

Second, expand the responsibilities of social networks with e-commerce activities and multi-service integration platforms; supplement regulations on responsibilities to prevent abuse of position and ensure healthy competition.

Third, add regulations on identifying domestic sellers (via VNeID) and foreign sellers (via legal documents) to make transactions transparent.

Fourth , supplement regulations on the responsibilities of livestream sales entities and affiliate marketing entities regarding identification, information transparency and consumer protection.

Fifth , supplement regulations on the responsibility of foreign platform owners in establishing legal entities or authorizing competent legal entities in Vietnam to perform obligations regarding taxes, disputes, and consumer protection.

Sixth, supplement regulations on minimum responsibilities of e-commerce support service providers and a rapid response mechanism to request cessation of cooperation with platforms that violate the law.

Seventh , prescribe specific elements in electronic contracts with ordering functions; supplement regulations on automatic contracts and responsibilities of related parties.

Eighth, supplement regulations on developing domestic and export e-commerce markets; specific policies for remote areas, vulnerable groups, small enterprises and business households.

According to Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, the draft Law stipulates 20 administrative procedures in e-commerce activities.

Compared with current administrative procedures, the administrative procedures in the draft Law have been comprehensively reformed and restructured in the direction of shifting from pre-inspection to post-inspection, based on data and risks, simplifying administrative processes, implementing 100% of the entire process in the electronic environment, creating convenience for businesses and people; at the same time, ensuring that state management agencies have effective tools to monitor, warn and handle violations.

Due to the urgent need to complete and promulgate the Law on E-commerce as soon as possible as presented above, the Government submits the Law project to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at this Session according to the 1-session process.

Immediately after the Law on E-commerce is promulgated by the National Assembly, the Government will assign relevant ministries and branches to immediately develop and promulgate sub-law documents to guide the implementation of the Law in a synchronous, feasible manner, consistent with the domestic and international context, contributing to promoting the effective and sustainable development of e-commerce and digital economy in the spirit of Resolution No. 57 of the Politburo.

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/bo-truong-nguyen-hong-dien-trinh-quoc-hoi-luat-thuong-mai-dien-tu.html

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