Short answer: The e-commerce platform’s role in Vietnamese law has fundamentally changed: from a technical intermediary to a subject bearing direct duties on tax, counterfeit control and consumer data. These three layers are reinforced together by the platform withholding mechanism, the E-Commerce Law 122/2025/QH15 with Decree 248/2026/ND-CP, and the Personal Data Protection Law 91/2025/QH15.
Tax withholding: the platform becomes a collection arm
Under Decree 117/2025/ND-CP on tax administration for business on e-commerce and digital platforms, a platform with payment functions must withhold, declare and pay VAT and personal income tax on behalf of household and individual sellers for revenue arising through the platform. This mechanism changes the platform–seller relationship: the platform must build systems to determine revenue, reconcile money flows and issue withholding evidence to sellers, while sellers must supply accurate tax information and answer for declaration truthfulness. Foreign platforms serving Vietnamese users are not outside this mechanism; organising an in-country presence and compliance point is a practical operating condition for performing withholding and working with the tax authority.
Counterfeits and consumer data
For counterfeit and prohibited goods, a platform cannot keep a purely neutral stance once it knows or is notified of a violation: duties include seller-information control, complaint intake mechanisms, removal of violating goods within prescribed time limits and cooperation with regulators, on the base of the E-Commerce Law 122/2025, the Consumer Rights Protection Law 19/2023/QH15 and IP law. On data, buyer and seller records on a platform are large-scale personal data: the platform needs clear lawful bases, tight sub-processor agreements and incident response under Law 91/2025 — a platform data breach is simultaneously a consumer-protection and a data-protection incident.
Running three-layer compliance
- Withholding integrated into the payment flow, with reconciliation and automatic seller certificates.
- Violation-removal processes with internal deadlines shorter than statutory ones.
- Seller terms updated to Law 122/2025: information, tax, prohibited goods, platform sanctions.
- The platform’s data protection file audited as a large-scale data controller.
Frequently asked questions
How does platform tax withholding work in detail?
A platform with payment functions withholds VAT and PIT on household and individual sellers’ platform revenue, declares and pays on their behalf under Decree 117/2025, and issues withholding evidence to sellers. Sellers remain responsible for their tax information and finalisation; the platform answers for correct withholding on money flows it controls.
What does a platform answer for on counterfeit and prohibited goods?
The platform must control seller information, receive and process reports, remove violating goods within prescribed time limits once it knows or is notified, and cooperate with regulators. Knowing of a violation and not acting forfeits the neutral-intermediary position and brings corresponding liability and sanctions under e-commerce, consumer-protection and IP law.
How must platforms protect consumer data?
As a large-scale personal data controller under Law 91/2025: transparent lawful bases, purpose limitation, processing agreements with partners, impact assessments for high-risk data features and timely incident notification. Transaction data may not be used for undisclosed purposes without a valid basis.
How do foreign platforms such as Shopee and TikTok Shop comply?
Foreign platforms serving the Vietnamese market must organise in-country compliance for platform tax, goods-content management, consumer protection and data duties — through presence, authorised points and systems for working with Vietnamese regulators. Cross-border scale creates no exception for duties attached to users and sellers in Vietnam.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council