Notice and Stay-Down Policy Introduced into E-Commerce Law and its Guiding Regulations

The Law on E-Commerce, promulgated on 10 December 2025 and effective from 1 July 2026, and Decree No. 248/2026/ND-CP dated 30 June 2026 detailing a number of articles of the Law on E-Commerce, effective from 1 July 2026 (Decree 248), for the first time codify the “stay-down” principle in respect of violations in commercial transactions in the digital environment.

Previously, the responsibility of intermediary service providers was regulated on a reactive basis, meaning that the obligation to remove infringing content only arose once notice of the infringement had been given (notice and take-down). The Law on E-Commerce and Decree 248 have introduced the responsibility of e-commerce platform operators on a proactive basis, specifically the responsibility to prevent the recurrence of infringements (notice and stay-down). In practice, repeat infringement occurs very commonly and at a high frequency in e-commerce activities. Immediately after infringing content is removed or access to it is blocked, infringers can easily re-upload the same infringing subject matter to the same e-commerce platform under a different account. As a result, rights holders have had to repeat the process of notice and take-down multiple times for the same infringing subject matter.

Accordingly, the introduction of the proactive responsibility of e-commerce platform operators (notice and stay-down) represents a major and significant advancement, reducing the time, effort and cost for rights holders in enforcing their intellectual property (IP) rights in the digital environment. This provision also helps provide rights holders with greater peace of mind and contributes to a safer e-commerce environment.

Summary of Certain Contents Relating to Notice and Stay-Down

• Under the Law on E-Commerce and Decree 248, the operator of an intermediary e-commerce platform is responsible for censoring content relating to goods and services created by sellers before permitting display on the platform, in order to prevent trading in prohibited goods or services, counterfeit goods, goods infringing IP rights, smuggled goods, and goods of unknown origin;
• Decree 248 further provides that e-commerce platform operators are responsible for updating keywords in accordance with recommendations from the competent regulatory authority and filtering information by such keywords before information on goods and services is displayed on the e-commerce platform;
• This responsibility is stricter for the operator of an intermediary e-commerce platform with an online ordering function that is a large digital platform, which is required to establish systems for automated detection, warning and removal of information on illegal goods/services, and measures to prevent repeated violations, including violations of the operating conditions and transaction conditions of the e-commerce platform that have already been handled by the platform but continue to be committed.

Responsibilities of Organizations Providing E-Commerce Support Services

In addition to the new notice and stay-down provisions, the Law on E-Commerce and Decree 248 also clearly set out the responsibilities of organizations providing e-commerce support services, such as:

• Providers of e-commerce infrastructure services are responsible for preventing infringing acts within 24 hours from the time of receipt of a request from the competent regulatory authority;
• Providers of e-commerce logistics services are responsible for suspending the provision of services within 24 hours from the time of receipt of a request from the competent regulatory authority;
• Providers of payment services and intermediary payment services are responsible for removing platforms showing signs of violating the law or violating the law within 24 hours from the time of receipt of a request from the competent regulatory authority.

Matters Requiring Specific Guidance and Recommendations for Rights Holders

• Decree 248 provides for the keyword-filtering responsibility of e-commerce platform operators as follows: “update keywords in accordance with recommendations from the competent regulatory authority and filter information by such keywords…”. Under this provision, a question arises as to whether the responsibility of e-commerce platform operators is limited to filtering keywords updated in accordance with recommendations from the competent regulatory authority, and does not require them to proactively filter keywords in the absence of such recommendations from the competent regulatory authority?
• In addition, it remains unclear in what form and through what procedure the competent regulatory authority is to issue such recommendations — whether a recommendation is issued after each specific case of infringement, or whether recommendations are compiled and issued collectively. Furthermore, with respect to keywords that are clearly linked to infringement based on an actual case already known to the e-commerce platform operator from an IP infringement case on another e-commerce platform, but for which no recommendation has yet been issued by the competent regulatory authority, is the e-commerce platform operator obligated to proactively filter such information?
• A further question is whether e-commerce platform operators are required to include in the filter list keywords leading to content identical to the infringing content, or keywords leading to content that is “similar” or “equivalent” to the infringing content to an extent that it is still considered infringing.

While further specific guidance is needed, rights holders should take advantage of this new proactive mechanism by coordinating with and proactively providing e-commerce platform operators with keywords to request the filtering of information to prevent infringement, with a view to thoroughly addressing infringements.

Should you require further assistance regarding the above matter, please feel free to contact us at the following e-mail address: hanoi@duongtran.vn.