Vietnam’s new e-commerce framework makes a commercial design choice a regulatory question. Whether a service hosts sellers, enables ordering or integrates another platform can affect the responsibilities associated with entering the market. For cross-border businesses, treating local compliance as a registration exercise at the end of product development is increasingly difficult to justify.
The Law on E-Commerce took effect on 1 July 2026. An English reference translation published by the Government News portal in August distinguishes direct business platforms, intermediary platforms, e-commerce social networks and integrated platforms. Its treatment of foreign services also depends on their features and connection with Vietnamese buyers. Government reference translation, articles 3 and 27
Classify the service that customers actually use
The first analytical step is to map the transaction. Where does a customer encounter the product? Who controls the listing? Where is the order placed? Which party receives a complaint or initiates a refund? An app may perform more than one role, and its marketing description may not capture the functions that matter legally.
Article 27 differentiates local establishment and representation requirements by platform model, with treaty-related qualifications. It also identifies Vietnamese-language availability, a Vietnamese domain or a transaction threshold as relevant connections, subject to the provision’s scope and exclusions. A blanket statement that every foreign website must establish a Vietnamese subsidiary would therefore be unreliable. Government reference translation, article 27
Our assessment is that market-entry approval should be attached to a documented operating model. A later change that adds checkout, seller accounts or an integrated marketplace should trigger a renewed assessment. Otherwise, the company may keep relying on advice prepared for a materially different service.
For a regional platform, that discipline has financial value. It allows legal and operational costs to be incorporated before a launch date is promised. It also makes it possible to compare a direct-sales model with a marketplace model on a realistic basis, instead of discovering different obligations only after customer acquisition has begun.
Livestreaming brings the sales process into the control framework
Official implementation reporting highlights new treatment of sales livestreaming and affiliate marketing, including identity verification, complaint mechanisms and controls over unlawful promotional activity. The policy concern is the traceability of the people and claims driving a transaction. Government account of the new law
For brands, this means that influencer management deserves the same attention as other distribution channels. A contract should identify who approves product claims, how a livestream is monitored and who can stop a promotion when a problem emerges. The platform, agency, seller and presenter should not each assume that someone else owns those decisions.
Consider a campaign for a consumer product whose permitted claims differ across markets. A regional script, translated without a local review, can create a problem even where the underlying goods are lawfully sold. The useful control is a country-specific claims process connected to the people running the broadcast, with retained evidence of the approved version.
Evidence must connect advertising, goods and complaints
Vietnam’s enforcement priorities reinforce the commercial relevance of that approach. In July, the government’s Hanoi portal reported an emphasis on e-commerce platforms within anti-counterfeit and anti-smuggling activity, alongside airports and higher-risk product categories. This is an enforcement signal, not evidence that every platform or seller faces the same inspection intensity. Hanoi enforcement priorities
An internal review should be able to reconstruct a transaction from the promotional claim to the seller, product documentation and final customer response. The weak point may be a missing connection between systems rather than a complete absence of information. For example, a complaint team may hold a refund record but have no access to the livestream that induced the purchase.
The law permits certain previously notified or registered websites and applications to continue under their confirmed profiles until 30 June 2027. That transitional provision should not be read as a general suspension of the new framework. Government reference translation, article 41
The immediate priority is a model-specific gap assessment that also checks implementing instruments and treaty treatment. Companies should reserve firm launch commitments until local responsibilities, evidence access and customer-remedy arrangements are workable. In Vietnam’s expanding digital market, the ability to resolve a problematic transaction may become as important to sustainable growth as the ability to generate one.
Research updated 14 September 2026. Cover photograph: Peter Nguyen.
