Need to ‘legalize’ e-commerce

E-commerce trading floors (e-commerce) often encounter risks when checking, monitoring, collating information from suppliers, controlling quality of goods.

Illustration. Source: Internet According to the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), e-commerce has been bringing many opportunities for SMEs to boost sales and save overall transaction costs. Many violations During more than 10 years of establishment and development, the e-commerce industry has recorded rapid and continuous growth. Data from Center for Information Technology and Digital Technology, Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, in the past 5 years, the number of businesses and individuals selling goods in the e-commerce market has been increasing. The representative of the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also said that the strong growth of e-commerce is giving rise to many new problems, including transparency, customer rights assurance, e-commerce management. on social networks or cross-border e-commerce. Many organizations and individuals take advantage of e-commerce activities to trade prohibited goods and services, smuggled goods, counterfeit goods, infringing intellectual property rights, poor quality goods, and limited goods. business restrictions, goods trading with conditions, expired goods, goods of unknown origin, providing false information to deceive consumers … In the long term, e-commerce activities should not be managed in the “fragmented” style, adjusted for each individual platform. Because, the more we try to control specifically each type of platform, the more small and medium technology enterprises will find it difficult to enter the market. According to the Steering Committee of 389 countries, with the explosive development of e-commerce, commercial fraud activities on e-commerce floors have also increased rapidly in both size and number of cases. In recent times, many social networks and e-commerce applications are being exploited by the objects in loopholes in legal regulations and the management of the authorities to smuggle, trade fraud and trade. sales of counterfeit goods. Analyzing more closely, Mr. Phan Trong Dat – Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC) added, e-commerce trading floors often encounter risks when checking, monitoring and comparing information from suppliers. issuing and controlling the quality of goods (fake goods, counterfeit goods, poor quality goods) Supplier problems arise when the quantity and quality of goods cannot be controlled when it reaches consumers, claims about payment, advertising, and promotion. Consumers may face the risk of fraud, receiving poor quality goods, lack or lack of accurate information about the supplier, risks in payment, delivery … It is necessary to legislate current legal frameworks E-commerce is an inevitable trend today. However, the legal frameworks for e-commerce activities and social networking activities have been built mainly since 2013. But these regulations have not kept up with the trend of development, so far it is only a principle. are causing many difficulties in the application process. E-commerce activities in Vietnam are currently developing very quickly and it is difficult to distinguish e-commerce activities on e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce websites and on social networks because these platforms always have the improvement and addition of functions. function is similar. A research report by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) shows that the trend of using social networks as a marketing and distribution channel has been on the rise in recent years. Social networking platforms such as Facebook, tiktok, and Instagram are now all becoming e-commerce platforms, in addition, there is also a livestream mode to introduce goods directly to consumers. Using these platforms for sales, it is extremely difficult to control the quality of goods. A series of infringement detection cases, arrests of pirated goods, nearly full counterfeit goods were continuously discovered, such as a household warehouse in Ninh Binh with an average of 1,000 orders / day, or a warehouse of cosmetics and clothing in Ba Vi with an average of over 3,000 applications / day … According to the representative of the Market Control Department, the biggest difficulty in detecting and handling cases in the e-commerce environment is to have clear facts, must have buyers and have specific goods. While online transactions and payments are virtual, there are no business locations, making the information management force unable to check immediately. Not to mention, most of the transactions in this form do not have invoices and documents, so the detection and handling work is even more difficult. Therefore, in order to effectively control goods and transactions on e-commerce transactions, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan – Deputy General Director of VCCorp, 5 issues need to be clarified. First, posted goods must be managed to ensure intellectual property rights. Monday, management is entitled to impersonation. Tuesday , because if not managed, the problem of price competition will arise. Wednesday was, how to handle and remove bad news, even when needed, it is possible to extract “profiles” of sellers as well as buyers – data management. Thursday, manage tax obligations for service providers on social networks. In the long term, according to Mr. Tran Dang Quang – Institute for Policy Research and Communication Development (IPS), it is not advisable to manage e-commerce activities in the “fragmented” style, adjusted for each individual platform. Because, the more we try to control specifically each type of platform, the small and medium technology businesses and startups will face a lot of difficulties if they want to enter the market. Meanwhile, large businesses with potential and experience may have many ways to respond to the stringent conditions required by law.