Website Registration
What is the website/mobile application announcement or registration?
Every website and mobile application used to display, promote or provide a company’s goods or services to the Vietnamese market must be approved by the Department of Industry and Trade (“DOIT”) through the procedures of notification or registration of the website or mobile application.
Periodic reports are also mandatory to keep the authority updated about the use of the website or mobile application.
Legal services:
- Revising the General condition of use, Privacy policy and other legal notices;
- Announcing and registering the company’s website and mobile application at the DOIT;
- Reporting periodically to the DOIT.
How to proceed?
- Contact us via phone, email or create a CRM account to define your investment requirements and objectives with our lawyers.
- Whenever possible we will meet in person to define your legal strategy in depth.
- Our legal services will notably include our advisory on the compliance of your website’s operating model and contents with Vietnamese regulations, and assisting you to adjust its terms of use and policies.
- We will provide you with the list of required information and documents, as well as the application dossier drafted and translated by us into Vietnamese and English languages.
- At any time, you can access the CRM system to manage and keep a track of your legal services.
In most cases, investors shall implement the following steps to establish a company:
Step 1: Obtaining an Investment Registration Certificate, abbreviated IRC (if any non-Vietnamese investors).
Step 2: Obtaining an Enterprise Registration Certificate, abbreviated ERC or BRC for Business Registration Certificate.
The company is established but the following steps are required for regulatory compliance:
Step 3: Post establishment procedures.
Step 4: Obtaining sub-licenses (if any).
For non-conditional business sectors, we usually need from 6 to 8 weeks to setup a foreign-invested company and 1 week for a Vietnamese-invested one.
However, especially for foreign-owned companies, the time can be extended due to various reasons such as additional requirements from the licensing authorities.
The trading license is a sub-license mandatory for foreign-owned companies in some specific cases, notably when providing services of:
- Retail;
- Wholesale of specific products (such as lubricants, rice, sugar, recorded items, books, newspapers and magazines);
- E-commerce;
- Logistics (except for specific cases);
- Goods leasing (excluding finance leasing and leasing of construction equipment with operator services);
- Commercial intermediary;
- Bid-holding;
- Commercial promotion (excluding advertising services).
The trading license is granted by the Department of Industry and Trade and in some special cases, an approval from the Ministry of Industry and Trade can be required.
An enterprise’s website which provides one out of three following activities, must be registered with the competent authorities:
- E-Commerce Exchange service.
- Online sales promotion service.
- Online auction service.
An enterprise application has to submit online. The competent authority shall responses to the company regarding whether they approve or reject the registration application form within 07 working days from the date the application is valid.
In circumstance there is any change in relate to business information, subject of the website (Domain name, changing of service, regulation and condition), the enterprise has to notify the competent authority.
These following restricted goods are not permitted to advertise or do business on E-commerce websites:
- Shotguns and bullets, sporting weapons, combat gear;
- Cigarettes, cigars and other finished products of tobacco;
- Alcohol drinks;
- Precious and rare wildlife and plants including live species and their processed parts;
- Other goods restricted from trading under the law.
Company’s obligation is periodic reporting to the competent authority after company’ website is registered successfully in order to avoid a website cancellation under the law.
