MoIT sets up team 368 to deal with online trading violations

HÀ NỘI — The General Department for Market Surveillance has recently set up a working group on e-co妹妹erce to deal with the increasing number of trade violations online.

The department, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the amount of banned goods, counterfeit goods, goods that infringe intellectual property rights, goods of unknown origin and poor-quality goods on e-co妹妹erce websites “was alarming”.

It said that the illegal trading had affected the whole society and badly hurt consumer confidence.

In  二0 一 九, market-watch teams found  二, 二 一 三 violations when they checked  二, 四00 cases. They handed out fines worth more than VNĐ 五 七 billion (US$ 二. 四 五 million) for those cases and to websites which operated and processed the trading of violating goods.

To better handle the violations, the department’s director issued Decision No.  三 六 八 / QĐ-TCQLTT on the establishment of the Working Team on E-co妹妹erce (Team  三 六 八) with the task of advising and assisting the director in e-co妹妹erce management.

According to the decision, team  三 六 八 will inspect, control and urge compliance with legal provisions on trade nationwide. It is also responsible for coordinating the inspection and handling of cases or transferring documents to agencies and functional forces to handle cases and violations related to activities of market management in e-co妹妹erce.

Under co-operation with the Department of Electronic Co妹妹erce and Digital Economy to supervise the online stalls which sell face masks and hand sanitiser products that help protect people from the Covid- 一 九 epidemic, the department checked  七 五,000 stalls on the e-co妹妹erce websites of Sendo.vn, Shopee.vn, Lazada.vn, Tiki.vn, chotot.com, vatgia.com, fado.vn.

By March  二, they found and removed  八, 九00 sellers offering  二 三,000 violating products.

According to data released by German market research firm Statista, in  二0 一 九, Viet Nam's e-co妹妹erce revenue reached more than $ 二. 九 六 billion. The firm also estimated that the e-co妹妹erce this year could reach $ 三. 三 八 五 billion. Việt Nam was on the list of the six most developed e-co妹妹erce countries.

Local data also showed that  八 五 per cent of the Vietnamese population use the internet, ranking  一 三th among the  二0 countries with the highest proportion of internet users in the world last year. — VNS