VCCI recommends adding policies to protect the rights of sellers on e-commerce platforms.

In recent times, e-commerce platforms have grown rapidly and have gradually become an important sales channel for businesses and individual businesses. On the consumer side, 61% of internet users said that e-commerce platforms are their most preferred online shopping channel.

On the seller side, in 2024, there will be 650,000 online stores on e-commerce platforms that generate orders. Sales of the 5 most popular e-commerce platforms in 2024 reached 318,900 billion VND. This development allows the platforms to hold many important advantages that can create a significant difference in power in e-commerce relations.

Current e-commerce law focuses mainly on regulations protecting consumer rights. Meanwhile, the rights and interests of sellers of goods and services receive less attention.

Small e-commerce sellers are often in a much weaker position than e-commerce platforms, and can therefore be vulnerable to unfavorable policies and loss of bargaining power, such as sudden changes in terms, suspensions or bans without apparent reason, restrictions on data access, etc.

In contributing ideas to the draft Law on E-commerce, the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) proposed adding policies to protect the rights of sellers on e-commerce platforms, focusing on increasing transparency in the platform’s operations for sellers, ensuring access to business data and the seller’s right to negotiate freely.

According to VCCI, a recent study by the European Commission showed that 46% of businesses in the European Union (EU) market that used online platforms encountered problems in commercial relations with the platforms; of which, 21% said the problems occurred frequently. Businesses that relied heavily on platforms were significantly more likely to encounter problems than the rest. The economic loss was estimated at 2 to 19.5 billion Euros per year.