E-commerce websites which violate information provision and contract formation regulations will soon face heavy fines.

Duong Hoang Minh, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s (MoIT) e-Commerce and IT Department, said e-commerce websites violations were still common, despite the industry’s rapid development in VietNam

None of the more than 50 Vietnamese e-commerce websites investigated by Minh’s department and the Vietnam e-Commerce Association (VECOM) fully complied with all the regulations set out by the MoIT Circular 09/2008/TT-BCT.

According to the report on the investigation announced late last month, all investigated websites were considered early pioneers of e-commerce in Vietnam. However, a staggering 98 per cent of them did not provide enough basic information about their owners. This included names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and company business registration numbers.

The report also raised the alarm about the protection of customers’ private details. All surveyed websites gathered these details, including sensitive data such as customers’ credit card numbers. However, only 12 per cent of them had private data protection policies. The rate was even worse than the results of a 2006 survey performed by the same organisations on 289 Vietnamese e-commerce websites. That study revealed that 26 per cent of surveyed companies, or 74 websites, had such policies.

Furthermore, only 6 per cent of the newly investigated websites allowed customers to choose to provide their private details or not. Transaction terms are considered the most important factor in trade activities, but the investigators found that 46 per cent websites did not provide any information about these terms. Only 38 per cent stated pricing details of offered goods, including before and after tax prices, shipping fees and other related expenses.

Some 20 per cent of surveyed websites did not have any method of responding to contract offers in a specified time, meaning customers of these sites do not know whether their orders have been confirmed. Experts said that an important aspect that helped foster trust for e-commerce customers was information on conflict solving processes.

However, this was neglected in most websites investigated. Only 4 per cent made information on this issue public. None of the surveyed websites reached the maximum 19 assessment points, with only one reaching 18 and most scoring well below.

"The Circular 09-2008-TT-BCT set out the minimum standards that any e-commerce website needs to achieve, but the current level of compliance showed that e-commerce in Vietnam is still far from being professional," said Lai Viet Anh, head of the e-Commerce and the IT Department’s Legal Office.

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