Draft Law on E-commerce 2025: Many regulations attract public attention

From that reality, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 on the basis of inheriting the decrees regulating e-commerce and e-commerce activities that are currently in effect.

Draft law inherits many regulations

The Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 was developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and announced for comments, including 7 chapters and 55 articles. Article 1 of the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 stipulates the scope of regulation as follows: This Law regulates the development and management of e-commerce activities. Thus, compared with Article 1 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP dated May 16, 2013 of the Government on e-commerce (referred to as Decree 52), there are not many changes. Specifically, Article 1 of Decree 52 stipulates: This Decree regulates the development, application and management of e-commerce activities.

However, because Article 1 of Decree 52 is amended and supplemented by Clause 1, Article 1 of Decree 85/2021/ND-CP dated September 25, 2021 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 52 (referred to as Decree 85), there is a clear difference in nature.

E-commerce transactions are quite popular in the digital age. Illustration photo

Specifically, Clause 1, Article 1 of Decree 85 stipulates that this Decree regulates the development, application and management of e-commerce activities. E-commerce activities are implemented in accordance with the provisions of this Decree and relevant laws, except for the provisions on e-commerce activities in the fields of financial services, banking, credit, insurance, lottery; buying and selling, exchanging money, gold, foreign currency and other means of payment; betting services or prize-winning games; distribution and release services of digital information content products, radio and television services as stipulated in specialized laws are not within the scope of this Decree.

In particular, Article 2 of the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 stipulates the subjects of regulation of the draft as follows: This Law applies to domestic and foreign organizations and individuals participating in e-commerce activities in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Decree 52 and Decree 85 have quite detailed regulations. For example, this Decree applies to traders, organizations and individuals participating in e-commerce activities in Vietnam, including: Vietnamese traders, organizations and individuals; foreign individuals residing in Vietnam; foreign traders and organizations with e-commerce activities specified in Section 5, Chapter IV of this Decree in Vietnam.

According to lawyer Nguyen Duc (Dong Nai Province Bar Association), in addition to the contents included in the decree and refined, the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 has many new regulations. For example, regulations on business locations (Article 9); Errors in entering information in electronic documents (Article 10); Providing contract terms when using the online ordering function on e-commerce platforms (Article 12); Conditions for establishing e-commerce platforms for direct business (Article 19)...

Lawyer LUONG VAN HUNG, Dong Nai Province Lawyers Association, expressed his opinion: “The development of a draft law on specialized e-commerce such as the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 is not only to solve current problems, but also to shape the future of this field, ensuring balanced development between state management, consumer rights and business interests”.

Clear terminology and many prohibited behaviors

The explanation and regulation of legal terms and phrases are of great value and importance in the development of legal documents and laws. Through the explanation of legal terms and phrases, it will help the subjects regulated by the law and legal documents understand and implement, apply in a unified manner, avoiding one issue being understood in many ways leading to different and incorrect applications...

Article 3 of the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 stipulates that in this law, the following terms are understood as follows: E-commerce activities are the conduct of part or all of the process of commercial activities in cyberspace. Electronic documents in commercial transactions (hereinafter referred to as electronic documents) include contracts, proposals, notifications, confirmations and other documents in the form of electronic data provided by the parties to serve e-commerce activities. E-commerce platforms are digital platforms established to carry out e-commerce activities, including direct business e-commerce platforms, intermediary e-commerce platforms, social networks with e-commerce activities and digital platforms integrating multiple services.

Also in Article 3 of the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025, it is stipulated that a direct e-commerce business platform is an e-commerce digital platform established by organizations and individuals to directly conduct the purchase and sale of products, goods or provide services to customers. An e-commerce social network is a social network with one of the following functions: opening a store, placing orders online, affiliate marketing, or live streaming sales. An integrated multi-service platform is an e-commerce platform that allows linking or integrating other e-commerce platforms on the same system...

According to lawyer Nguyen Duc, the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 also stipulates many prohibited acts in e-commerce that are of public concern. Accordingly, Article 6 of the Draft Law on E-commerce 2025 strictly prohibits the following acts: Taking advantage of the name of e-commerce activities to illegally raise capital from other organizations and individuals. Committing acts of fraud and deception of customers on the e-commerce platform. Taking advantage of e-commerce activities to conduct multi-level business without being granted a certificate of registration for multi-level sales activities according to the provisions of law. Trading or facilitating others to trade in goods and services in prohibited investment and business sectors and occupations, counterfeit goods, goods infringing intellectual property rights, smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, expired goods, goods violating the provisions of law on product and goods quality and other legal provisions. Using algorithms or measures to limit or prioritize the display of products, goods, and services of business organizations and individuals without publicly disclosing selection criteria….

Doan Phu

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/phap-luat/202508/du-thao-luat-thuong-mai-dien-tu-nam-2025-nhieu-quy-dinh-duoc-du-luan-quan-tam-d841f08/