The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) plans to publish a list of e-commerce websites and mobile applications that violate laws and regulations on online trading.

The details of individuals and organisations who own the websites in question will also be published.

Ðang Hoang Hai, director of the ministry’s Viet Nam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (Vecita) said there were new forms of online business, as well as rapidly increasing use of social networks, over the past few years.

This was the reason the ministry is building a draft decree on management of e-commerce website and mobile apps to reduce shortcomings in the management of the new online business forms.

Hai said the current Decree 52/2013/NÐ-CP stipulated regulations relating to e-commerce transactions. However, reports from the Departments of Industry and Trade showed that the decree has a number of shortcomings.

The draft decree would require e-commerce websites to register with the ministry.

The websites are those partially or wholly serving the following activities: purchasing and selling of goods or provision of services; displaying and introducing goods or services to contract commitment and service provision, and payment and after-sales service.

Therefore, almost all websites that sell and introduce goods and provide services on the internet are e-commerce websites, which must be registered or notified to the ministry as prescribed by the law.

The draft decree also stipulates that organisations and individuals using e-commerce websites and mobile apps are not allowed to trade in hunting rifles and shotguns, sports weapons; cigarettes, cigars and other finished tobacco products; alcohol of all kinds; and rare wildlife. They have to remove the prohibited products from their e-commerce websites.

In addition, owners of the e-commerce websites are required to have technical solutions to prevent and remove information relating to counterfeit goods, smuggled goods or products and services violating intellectual property rights. — VNS