This has posed many new challenges for market management forces in the fight against counterfeit goods and consumer protection. Therefore, many opinions say that preventing violations in the online environment requires human resources, especially appropriate tools and methods, and cannot “catch the thief with bare hands”.

According to the Vietnam E-commerce White Book 2023, retail e-commerce revenue in Vietnam in 2023 increased by 25% compared to 2022, reaching 20.5 billion USD, accounting for 8% of retail revenue of goods and consumer services nationwide. The number of online shoppers in Vietnam in 2023 reached nearly 61 million people and each person is estimated to spend 336 USD/year on shopping.

However, this is also a fertile ground for those who take advantage of it to trade in counterfeit goods, banned goods, and goods of unknown origin. At the same time, they take advantage of e-commerce to defraud and appropriate property, propagate and disseminate banned products, products that violate national sovereignty and security, etc. Violations are increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable in both scale and area of ​​operation.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Le – Deputy Director of the Department of Market Management – in charge of directing and operating the general operations of the E-commerce Team (General Department of Market Management) said: By the end of 2021, the General Department of Market Management had coordinated with the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to inspect nearly 3,000 cases, imposing fines of over 20 billion VND.

In 2022, 784 cases were inspected and examined, 449 cases were handled, fines were imposed of nearly 6 billion VND, goods worth nearly 11.5 billion VND, and 2 cases were transferred to the Investigation Police Department for violations of e-commerce. In 2023, the force inspected 834 cases, handled 764 cases, fined 12 billion VND, goods worth nearly 6 billion VND.

In addition, 14 documents were issued requiring owners of e-commerce trading floors, e-commerce websites/applications to review and remove products that violate legal regulations. As a result, 23,359 products were removed and 6,254 violating stores were blocked.

Notably, many prominent cases of selling counterfeit goods and goods infringing intellectual property rights on social networks have been cracked down, such as: Ansan Cosmetics – Ho Chi Minh City; TS Vietnam – Hanoi; Menshop79 – Hanoi; 145 Hoang Dieu – Lao Cai; Vu Ban – Nam Dinh; transferring the investigation agency of the Mailystyle case in Ha Dong, Hanoi…

On the other hand, many subjects also take advantage of e-commerce to sell banned products, products with maps showing incorrect national sovereignty and borders. Typical cases include toys with world flag maps; images of China’s cow tongue (30 boxes and 2 sacks were seized without invoices or documents being presented); the case of Australian 2 dollar bills with the yellow flag (Lazada removed 30 products and locked 8 stores; Sendo removed 6 products and locked 2 stores; Shopee locked 27 stores and about 700 products).

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has closely coordinated with the National Steering Committee 389, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health, etc. to provide information, review and handle hundreds of websites and applications that violate the law each year. At the same time, the files have been transferred to the police to handle many violations with signs of criminality to clarify and take timely measures to prevent the risk of causing large-scale damage.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Minh Phuong, Head of the E-commerce Team, General Department of Market Management, after 2 months of official operation, the E-commerce Team of the General Department of Market Management has inspected and handled 9 violations on e-commerce platforms with a total fine and value of confiscated and destroyed goods of nearly 2 billion VND. Notably, the total amount of administrative fines is nearly 615 million VND; the value of confiscated goods is over 1 billion VND; the value of goods forced to be destroyed is nearly 200 million VND.

To combat the problem of counterfeit goods in e-commerce, the leader of the General Department of Market Management said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to submit to the Government amendments and supplements to legal regulations to strictly control e-commerce activities and protect consumer rights. At the same time, it will encourage Vietnam’s e-commerce to develop in a sustainable manner.

In addition, the Ministry will strengthen coordination, review, exchange and provide information between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, etc. on subjects taking advantage of websites and e-commerce applications to trade in counterfeit and prohibited goods for handling.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will organize seminars and conferences to propagate, warn and disseminate legal policies on anti-counterfeiting and consumer rights protection. In particular, it will develop solutions, equip tools, equipment and centralized database systems for ministries and sectors to allow connection and information sharing in early detection; combat and prevent counterfeit goods, smuggled goods and prevent tax losses according to the direction of the Prime Minister.

The leader of the General Department of Market Management said that it is necessary to build a cyberspace management system, a monitoring system, and a risk and risk warning system for digital transformation throughout; unifying from the Central to local market management to promptly handle incidents and violations.

In particular, promote the implementation of key tasks in the “Project on anti-counterfeiting and consumer protection in e-commerce until 2025” approved by the Prime Minister under Decision No. 319/QD-TTg dated March 29, 2023 and Decision No. 888/QD-TCQLTT dated March 22, 2021 of the General Department of Market Management approving the Plan to combat and prevent counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin and goods infringing intellectual property rights for the period 2021-2025.

“It can be said that in the fight against counterfeit goods, goods that infringe intellectual property rights, and goods of unknown origin in general and on cyberspace in particular, consumers must truly be an important “link”. This not only protects the rights of consumers themselves but also contributes to a healthy market of goods and protects domestic production,” said the leader of the General Department of Market Management.