Notify sales application to the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade

Nowadays, with the development of technology and e-commerce. Sales applications have been launched by businesses. However, to launch sales applications, businesses also need to meet the registration and notification requirements as prescribed by law. Viet An Law will explain more clearly the regulations on sales application notification to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the following article.

Legal basis

• Decree 52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce, as amended and supplemented by Decree 08/2018/ND-CP and Decree 85/2021/ND-CP;
• Circular 59/2015/TT-BCT on e-commerce via mobile applications, as amended and supplemented by Circular 21/2018/TT-BCT and Circular 01/2022/TT-BCT.
• Circular 47/2014/TT-BCT regulating the management of e-commerce websites, as amended and supplemented by Circular 21/2018/TT-BCT and Circular 01/2022/TT-BCT.

What is a sales e-commerce application?

Sales e-commerce application is a form of sales e-commerce website according to the provisions of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP. Accordingly, the function of these applications is to sell goods/services or promote trade of the entity setting up the website, to distinguish it from the function of providing e-commerce services of e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada.

According to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular 59/2015/TT-BCT, the direct definition of sales e-commerce application is as follows: “Sales application is an e-commerce application on mobile devices. activities established by traders, organizations and individuals to serve their trade promotion activities, sale of goods or provision of services“. Thus, in terms of functions of performing e-commerce activities of applications and websites, they are the same.

Article 25.3 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP also clearly stipulates:

“With the applications installed on electronic devices connected to the network that allow users to access the databases of other traders, organizations and individuals to purchase and sell goods, provide or use services, depending on the utilities of these applications, traders or organizations shall comply with this Decree’s provisions on sales e-commerce websites or e-commerce service provision websites.”

It can be seen that, although in the form of an application, compliance with regulations on e-commerce management still applies to sales e-commerce applications similar to sales e-commerce websites. One of those is the obligation to notify.

Obligation to notify of the establishment of sales e-commerce in Vietnam

Originating from the regulations on notification obligations of e-commerce sales websites in Article 52 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, sales applications installed on electronic devices also need to comply with this procedure similar to websites. This regulation is specified in Article 5.1 of Circular 59/2015/TT-BCT. This is a mandatory condition to establish a legally operating sales e-commerce application in territory of Vietnam.

E-commerce business imposes on the subject the obligation to notify and register according to the provisions of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP and its amendments and supplements. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish these two obligations and the subjects of application for compliance in practice.

The obligation to notify e-commerce sales applications is only imposed in the following cases:

• Subject: Traders, organizations and individuals are allowed to set up sales e-commerce applications;
• Subject conditions: have been granted a personal tax code.
• Sales application conditions: has online ordering function.

Note: According to Article 4 of Circular 59/2015/TT-BCT, with a mobile application, traders, organizations and individuals only carry out the notification procedure once for different application versions.

Sales application management authority

Sales applications are under state management of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. This is also the subject that receives and manages notifications and registrations of e-commerce traders in Vietnam nowadays.

Procedures to notify sales application to the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade

Information must be notified on the e-commerce application

According to the provisions of Article 53.2 of Decree 52/2013/ND-CP and Circular No. 59/2015/TT-BCT, when notifying, traders, organizations and individuals need to declare the following information:

• Application name;
• Storage address or application download address;
• Type of goods and services introduced on the application;
• Registered name of the trader, organization or name of the individual who owns the application;
• Address of the headquarters of the trader, organization or permanent residence address of the individual;
• Number, date of issue and place of issuance of the trader’s business registration certificate, or number, date of issue and unit issuing the establishment decision of the organization; or the individual’s personal tax identification number;
• Name, title, ID card number, phone number and email address of the trader representative, the person responsible for the e-commerce sales application;

Procedures

The process of notifying e-commerce sales applications is carried out online at the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s e-commerce activities management portal (www.online.gov.vn) according to the provisions of Article 9 of the Circular 47/2014/TT-BCT, specifically:

Step 1: Create an application account

Traders, organizations, and individuals register an account to log into the online.gov.vn system by providing the following information:

• Name of trader, organization, individual;
• Enterprise registration number of the trader or establishment decision number of the organization or personal tax code of the individual;
• Business/activity field;
• Address of the headquarters of the trader, organization or permanent residence address of the individual;
• Contact information.

Step 2: Notification of successful account creation

Within 3 working days, traders, organizations and individuals receive results from the Ministry of Industry and Trade via registered email address regarding one of the following contents:

• If the account registration information is complete, traders, organizations and individuals will be granted an account to log into the system and proceed with the following steps;
• If account registration is refused or additional information is requested, traders, organizations, and individuals must re-register or supplement information as requested.

Step 3: Submit sales application notification documents

After being granted an account to log into the system, traders, organizations and individuals log in, select the notify sales e-commerce website function and declare information according to the form.

Step 4: Processing documents

Within 3 working days, traders, organizations and individuals receive feedback from the Ministry of Industry and Trade via registered email address about one of the following contents:

• Confirm complete and valid declared information;
• Indicates that the declared information is incomplete or invalid. At that time, traders, organizations and individuals must return to re-declare or supplement information as required. Accordingly, traders, organizations and individuals are responsible for monitoring the status of application processing via email or the system access account that has been granted to update and edit information as required.

Within 10 working days of receiving the notice requesting additional information according to regulations, if the trader, organization or individual does not respond, the notification dossier will be terminated and must be notified. Proceed to notify the application again.

Step 5: Confirm notification

• The application notification confirmation time is 3 working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid notification documents from traders, organizations and individuals.
• Confirmation form: The Ministry of Industry and Trade sends traders, organizations and individuals via registered email address a code to attach to the sales e-commerce application, shown as the notified icon. When selecting this icon, users are directed to the corresponding notification information section of traders, organizations and individuals at the E-commerce Activities Management Information Portal.

Some related questions

How are the notification and registration obligations in e-commerce different?

To distinguish between notification and registration obligations in practice, it can be understood:

Can announced information be changed ?

According to the provisions of Article 11 of Circular 47/2014/TT-BCT, notified information can be changed and terminated according to regulations within 7 working days from the date of change. news or stop working.

• Form: online via the account provided when the first time the subject notify.
• Confirmation time: The Ministry of Industry and Trade confirms change/termination of notification information within 3 working days from the date of receipt of complete and accurate notice.

Other obligations of the sales e-commerce application

• Fully provide information on the website about the website owner, goods, services and terms of sales contracts applicable to goods and services introduced on the website;
• Comply with regulations on protecting customers’ personal information;
• Ensure regulations on entering into electronic contracts if the website has an online ordering function.
• Ensure payment safety regulations if the website has online payment function.

Sales application notification service of Viet An Law

• Legal advice related to the obligation to notify e-commerce applications;
• Drafting e-commerce application notification documents for clients;
• Client representative conducts notify sales application to the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade;
• Transfer relevant results after completing the procedure.

Clients with needs related to business and commercial law, or application notification registration, please contact Viet An Law for the best support.