A foreign brand selling into Vietnam through a marketplace platform, or its own storefront, used to check its obligations against Decree 85/2021. That decree stopped applying on 1 July 2026. Anything written before that date, including a good number of pages still online, describes a framework that no longer governs the relationship.
What replaced Decree 85/2021, and when
The Law on E-commerce (Law No. 122/2025/QH15), passed by the National Assembly on 10 December 2025, and its implementing Decree 248/2026/ND-CP both took effect on 1 July 2026, replacing Decree 52/2013/ND-CP and its 2021 amendment, Decree 85/2021/ND-CP, which ceased to apply from that date.
The new law runs to seven chapters and 41 articles, a single instrument where the old regime was a base decree plus amendments plus scattered guidance. Article 27 addresses “e-commerce with foreign elements” specifically, which is the provision a foreign seller or foreign platform operator needs to read first.
Checked against published summaries on 25 September 2026. The full implementing detail sits in Decree 248/2026/ND-CP; where a specific figure below is not stated in the sources checked, it is left out rather than guessed.
Which foreign platforms and sellers the law reaches
A foreign e-commerce platform falls under Vietnamese jurisdiction if it uses a Vietnamese-language interface, a “.vn” domain, or reaches 100,000 transactions with Vietnamese buyers within a year — carried forward from the same threshold in the old Decree 85/2021 and restated in Decree 248/2026.
| Trigger | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Vietnamese-language interface or “.vn” domain | Registration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and either a local legal entity or an appointed local representative |
| 100,000 transactions per year with Vietnamese buyers, without meeting either condition above | Same registration and representation requirement, based on transaction volume rather than language or domain |
| None of the above | Outside the law’s direct registration requirement, though a seller trading through a platform that does meet the threshold is still bound by that platform’s own compliance obligations |
An intermediary platform without a head office in Vietnam is additionally required to place a deposit intended to secure compensation for users and the fulfilment of tax obligations, including for foreign sellers trading on it — the published sources checked did not give a deposit amount, so do not assume a figure until it is confirmed in the implementing regulations or by the bank handling it.
💬 Selling through a marketplace platform into Vietnam and unsure whether your volume already crosses the registration threshold? Send us your Vietnam sales figures and we will tell you where you stand — contact Sunsho Trade.
Tax did not wait for the new law
A foreign seller without a permanent establishment in Vietnam already registers and pays tax through the General Department of Taxation’s dedicated portal for foreign suppliers, a mechanism that predates the new e-commerce law and continues alongside it.
That portal has been open to foreign suppliers since March 2022, and the tax rules layered on top of it changed twice in 2025 on their own timetable. From 1 July 2025, the VAT rate on services supplied into Vietnam by a foreign supplier without a permanent establishment, delivered through e-commerce or a digital platform, rose to 10%. Separately, the new Law on Corporate Income Tax, effective from 1 October 2025, brought foreign companies using e-commerce or digital platforms to supply goods or services into Vietnam formally within the scope of Vietnamese corporate income tax. From 1 July 2025, platform operators — domestic and foreign — are also required to withhold and pay tax on behalf of individual and household sellers trading through them.
None of this is a creation of the Law on E-commerce. It sits alongside it: a foreign seller registering under the new law’s Article 27 still has a separate, pre-existing tax registration to check, and a platform meeting the new law’s registration threshold has separate withholding duties toward its individual sellers that were already in force before 1 July 2026.
💬 Two separate registrations — e-commerce and tax — with two separate triggers is easy to miss one of. As part of our Selling into Vietnam service, we check both before you commit to a platform. Tell us how you plan to sell.
Product registration did not go anywhere
Selling through e-commerce changes how the transaction is regulated. It does not change whether the product itself may be sold in Vietnam at all — that still runs on the same product-specific rules as an offline sale.
A food product sold through a marketplace still needs the self-declaration or registered declaration set out in our note on the food declaration route, filed by a party established in Vietnam. A trademark used on a storefront or in marketplace search listings still needs registering in Vietnam on the same first-to-file basis covered in our note on trademark registration — a storefront selling under an unregistered mark is exposed to the same risk as a physical retailer would be. Nothing in the Law on E-commerce substitutes a platform listing for a product registration, and a platform accepting a listing is not the same as a regulator confirming the product complies.
This is the point most likely to be missed by a brand that reads “e-commerce law” and assumes it covers the whole compliance picture. It covers the transaction layer — who the seller and platform are, how they are taxed, what they disclose to buyers. It does not touch the product layer, which sits with whichever decree governs that specific category.
What a foreign seller still has to arrange on the ground
Even a seller trading only through e-commerce, with no local warehouse or storefront, needs someone established in Vietnam for at least three functions the new law and the underlying product rules both assume exist.
| Function | Why it cannot be done from abroad alone |
|---|---|
| Local representative or legal entity (where the registration threshold is met) | Article 27’s requirement is for a party present in Vietnam, not a correspondence address abroad |
| Product declaration holder | The declaration is filed by, and issued to, a party established in Vietnam, as covered in the food declaration route |
| Import and customs clearance | Goods physically entering Vietnam still clear customs and, where applicable, state inspection, regardless of how the sale was transacted |
A foreign brand that has built an e-commerce-only strategy around never having a Vietnamese entity should treat that as a decision to revisit, not a settled position — the new law narrows the space in which that structure works cleanly.
💬 We act as the local party a cross-border seller needs — declaration holder, importer of record, or both. Contact Sunsho Trade before your next platform sends a compliance notice you were not expecting.
What a platform now has to disclose, and what that means for a listed brand
The Law on E-commerce and Decree 248/2026 put new public-disclosure duties on the platform itself — ownership, privacy policy, user rights and obligations, and complaint-handling — and a large platform carries a further duty to run a system that reviews, flags and removes illegal product or service listings.
None of this is a duty on the individual foreign seller directly, but it changes what a seller can expect from the channel it sells through. A listing pulled by a platform’s own compliance system is not necessarily a regulatory action against the seller — it can be the platform managing its own new obligation — and a seller disputing a takedown needs to know which of the two it is dealing with before assuming a government authority is involved. Where a platform asks a foreign seller for documentation it did not previously request — a business registration, a product certificate, proof of the declaration holder’s identity — that is more likely the platform meeting its own new disclosure and verification duties than an arbitrary new hurdle, and the sensible response is to supply what is asked rather than to treat the request as optional.
Livestream and affiliate selling into Vietnam
The new law brings livestream commerce and affiliate marketing within its scope explicitly, which matters to a foreign brand relying on either channel to reach Vietnamese buyers even where the seller of record is a local host or affiliate rather than the brand itself.
A brand running product through a livestream host or an affiliate marketer based in Vietnam should confirm which party is treated as the seller for registration, tax and product-compliance purposes under the arrangement — the same product-registration and trademark points made above apply regardless of whether the transaction happens on a conventional storefront or inside a livestream sale. A brand that has not addressed this in its agreement with the host or affiliate is leaving open a question the law itself does not answer for them.
Frequently asked questions
1. Is Decree 85/2021 still the rule for e-commerce in Vietnam?
No. It ceased to apply from 1 July 2026, replaced by the Law on E-commerce (Law No. 122/2025/QH15) and its implementing Decree 248/2026/ND-CP. Any guidance describing Decree 85/2021 as current is out of date.
2. Our marketplace store does not use a .vn domain or Vietnamese language. Are we exempt from Vietnamese rules?
Not necessarily. The 100,000-transactions-per-year threshold applies independently of language and domain, and regardless of whether the registration threshold is met, the products sold still have to meet Vietnam’s own product-specific rules.
3. Does the new law replace the foreign supplier tax portal?
No. The tax portal and its VAT and corporate income tax obligations run on a separate track that predates the e-commerce law and continued through 2025 changes of its own. Registering under the e-commerce law does not substitute for the tax registration.
4. Can we sell without a Vietnamese entity if our product needs a declaration?
No. A product declaration is filed by, and issued to, a party established in Vietnam. Selling exclusively through e-commerce does not remove that requirement for a regulated product such as food or a health supplement.
5. What happens if our platform crosses the transaction threshold after we start selling on it?
The registration and representation requirement is triggered by meeting the threshold, not by intent at the outset, so a platform’s obligations — and by extension its sellers’ exposure to those obligations — can change over the course of a relationship as volume grows.
Sources: National Assembly of Vietnam (Law No. 122/2025/QH15, passed 10 December 2025), Government of Vietnam (Decree No. 248/2026/ND-CP), and published summaries of the General Department of Taxation’s foreign supplier portal and 2025 tax law changes. Requirements differ by seller and platform structure and change as implementing guidance is published; confirm the current text before you rely on it. Not legal advice. Checked on 25 September 2026.