Another country cracks down on sellers' infringement! More than 20,000 products have been removed from shelves

International online shopping is popular all over the world. While it brings convenience and speed to consumers, it also raises many issues regarding product quality and infringement.

Foreign media recently reported that Vietnam has been at the forefront in cracking down on e-commerce violations.

Data shows that Vietnam's retail e-commerce sales have grown by an average of about 20% over the past 10 years, making it one of the fastest growing e-commerce countries in the world. In 2023, the country's e-commerce market revenue will reach US$20.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25%.

However, as Vietnam's e-commerce market has grown strongly, a series of problems have also emerged. Among them, the most complained about is that "many unscrupulous sellers sell substandard or counterfeit registered trademark products on the platform."

Tran You Linh, director of the General Department of Market Management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, said that the department often receives complaints from brands about the sale of counterfeit goods on online platforms, including Lazada, Facebook, Zalo, etc. He also pointed out that counterfeit and shoddy products range from low-priced to high-priced, from simple to high-tech, and other categories, which will inevitably destroy the market environment, cause losses to consumers, and are extremely unfair to compliant sellers.

In order to maintain the order of the e-commerce market and the rights of consumers, Vietnam has been cracking down on violations in recent years.

Data shows that in 2021, the country investigated and dealt with 7,000 stores and about 19,000 illegal products; in 2022, it investigated and dealt with 2,000 stores and more than 6,000 illegal products.

Now there are reports that Vietnam closed more than 6,000 online stores and removed more than 23,000 counterfeit and shoddy products in 2023. According to statistics, the country has dealt with 5,000 violations in the past two years, with fines of 50 billion VND.

At the same time, Chen Youling said that sufficient human resources are indispensable to eliminating e-commerce violations, especially appropriate methods and policies.

In response to relevant suggestions , the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam has clearly supplemented the penalties for selling counterfeit and prohibited goods in the Consumer Protection Law , including fines , confiscation of e-commerce licenses, etc. , such as suspending the modification , destruction or permanent deletion of personal data, and returning illegal profits. The amount of the fine will also be increased according to the scope of impact of the violation.

It is reported that this law will officially come into effect on July 1 .

Not long ago, Vietnam also passed Decree No. 85. The decree stipulates that e-commerce and social media platforms must delete information about infringing goods within 24 hours after receiving complaints.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the efforts of relevant Vietnamese regulatory agencies to make e-commerce compliant, some e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada have stated that they will increase their crackdown on illegal sellers and infringing goods.

Looking ahead, as the regulatory policies of Vietnam's e-commerce market gradually improve, the penalties for infringing sellers and companies will become more and more severe. Therefore, whether it is a local seller or a cross-border seller, you must remember that e-commerce compliance is the bottom line and never violate legal prohibitions.