Consumers track product information on an e-commerce platform - Photo: Q.D
The Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has just provided some comments on the Draft Decision approving the plan to reduce and simplify administrative procedures related to production and business activities in 2025 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade .
Reduce procedures for small "online classifieds" platforms
Regarding licensing procedures for small e-commerce platforms, currently, the law requires all e-commerce platforms, regardless of size and form of operation, to carry out licensing procedures before operating.
According to VCCI, this method of management and equating is unreasonable.
Because this regulation is not suitable for small exchanges or newly released trial exchanges (start-ups), causing the exchange to be managed too tightly. In the field of social networks, with similar nature and impact, the law allows for looser management for small social networks (only need to notify if the number of visits is low, license when large enough) according to Decree 147/2024.
This regulation is also considered inconsistent with the nature of the floor's operations. Some floors only allow sellers to post product information, while transactions (contracts, payments, shipping) are all carried out through other methods such as phone, text messages, etc.
These platforms are just like an advertising and marketing channel, which can be imagined as an "online classifieds billboard". Important steps in the transaction process do not take place on the platform, so there is not much risk in this operating model.
Therefore, VCCI proposes to consider allowing small e-commerce platforms (or those that only provide product introduction and display features) to only need to carry out notification procedures when starting operations and will carry out licensing procedures when they have developed to a certain threshold.
Post-control
According to VCCI, after more than a decade of development, e-commerce has become an inevitable trend with the participation of many businesses and individuals. Methods of inspection and supervision are increasingly improved, along with the knowledge and skills of consumers being improved.
Therefore, relevant agencies need to research and re-determine the risks of e-commerce activities to cut administrative procedures and promote post-inspection activities.
E-commerce websites are essentially a new sales channel on the Internet, not a new business. Merchants have already had to carry out business registration procedures, certify business conditions and product quality with the State before. Therefore, VCCI believes that requiring additional notification for online sales channels creates an unnecessary administrative burden.
This unit cited Decree 52/2013 requiring all e-commerce websites selling goods to notify, including websites with only simple product introduction features.
Although Decree 85/2021 has reduced the scope to websites with online ordering functions, this reduction is not very meaningful according to VCCI, because setting up a sales website is very popular (44% of businesses own a website, of which 42% have online ordering functions). The number of notification files is very large, up to 105,103 files in 2023.
At the same time, there has been no reflection on the negative socio -economic impact of businesses not registering e-commerce websites to sell products. Thus, these procedures do not bring clear state management benefits, and even become barriers for traders.
Therefore, VCCI proposed to completely abolish the notification procedure for e-commerce websites and switch to a post-audit method to control the operations of these sites.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/vcci-de-xuat-noi-quan-ly-san-thuong-mai-dien-tu-nho-20250704175733068.htm
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