On December 05, 2014 the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued the Circular No. 47/2014/TT-BCT on the management of e-commerce websites. This Circular does not apply to websites operating in the fields of finance, banking, credit and insurance; websites for trading and exchange of money, gold, foreign currencies and other payment instruments; websites providing online game, betting or prize-winning game services. This Circular shows the tight regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the management of the E-Commerce Management Portal.
Firstly, the Circular regulates that traders, organizations and individuals may not use e-commerce websites to trade in the following goods subject to business restrictions: Hunting rifles and cartridges, sport weapons, support tools; Cigarettes, cigars and other finished tobacco products; Assorted liquors; Precious and rare wild plant and animal species, including also live plants and animals and their processed parts… Traders that develop websites to sell goods or services on the list of goods and services subject to conditional business and obtain a certificate of eligibility for business shall publish on their websites the number, date and place of grant of such certificate for those goods or services.
The Circular also states the responsibilities of traders and organizations providing e-commerce services. Of which, it requests to prevent and remove from their websites information on sale of goods and services on the list of goods and services banned from business; remove from their websites information on sale of counterfeit goods, imitate goods, smuggled goods, goods infringing upon intellectual property rights and other infringing goods and services when detecting or receiving well-grounded reports on such information…
This Circular takes effect on January 20, 2015 and replaces the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 12/2013/TT-BCT of June 20, 2013, prescribing procedures for notification, registration and publication of information on e-commerce websites
