Disputes keep pace with e-commerce growth

As Vietnam’s digital economy grows, so does the incidence of disputes between online sellers and buyers. The e-commerce market grew by 16 percent to $14 billion in 2020 and is expected to be worth $52 billion by 2025, according to a report by Google. The number of disputes is also growing rapidly, with 24.4 percent of sellers embroiled in disputes last year,a survey by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) found.

The Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency said it handled over 250 cases of e-commerce violations last year like unregistered websites, selling low-quality products, and assuming false business identities to cheat consumers.

Besides, e-commerce platforms took down over 17,400 online stores and 34,600 products in the first five months of 2020, according to the agency.

Nguyen Anh Duong, head of the general research department at CIEM, said though e-commerce platforms have procedures for receiving customer complaints and settling disputes, they can only handle sellers’ violations by closing the stores and cannot to make them compensate customers they cheated.

Experts said the demand for an online dispute resolution (ODR) system in e-commerce is growing since many enterprises and individuals do business online.

But Vietnam lacks a clear legal framework for the ODR, and experts said it is needed immediately so that an ODR system could be deployed.