TrueOrigin at the forum on anti-counterfeiting technology and consumer protection in Vietnamese e-commerce

The forum drew more than 300 delegates representing the ministries, agencies and units on the scheme's steering committee; experts and academics from the National Economics University and from major institutes and universities in Vietnam; the E-commerce Association, the Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Association and the Consumer Rights Protection Association; representatives of e-commerce platforms; anti-counterfeiting technology companies in Vietnam; and students of the National Economics University.

Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Thành Hiếu, Vice Rector of the National Economics University

Opening the forum, Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Thành Hiếu, Vice Rector of the National Economics University, said e-commerce has become a consumer trend worldwide, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognising the role and importance of e-commerce in economic development, the university brought the subject into its teaching years ago. Since the Directorate of Market Surveillance and the university opened the market surveillance programme, e-commerce has been one of the subjects the university has focused on.

"E-commerce is inevitable because of the benefits it brings, but it has also thrown up many problems — most obviously the mixing in of counterfeit, imitation and unsourced goods," Mr Hiếu said.

Director General Trần Hữu Linh speaking at the forum

Director General Trần Hữu Linh took the same view, stressing that e-commerce is now the main environment not only for buyers and sellers but for the authorities as well. On that trend, counterfeit and imitation goods traded through e-commerce are becoming common, and this will be the main front for market surveillance forces in the period ahead. But to handle violations effectively the authorities need people and, above all, the right tools and methods — they cannot fight bare-handed.

"Without suitable penalties, online will become a place to store, distribute and sell counterfeit goods, which harms businesses, reduces consumer trust and holds back the economy," Mr Trần Hữu Linh said, adding that earlier seminars had identified the causes and the state of play and proposed solutions for fighting counterfeits in e-commerce, while today's forum would concentrate on technological solutions.

"Fighting trade fraud and counterfeiting online calls for specific technological solutions to identify the buyer, the seller, the carrier and the goods, and so help prevent the risks," he stressed.

What technology can fight counterfeiting?

On solutions for fighting counterfeits and protecting consumers in e-commerce, Dr Đinh Lê Hải Hà, Deputy Director of the Institute of Trade and International Economics at the National Economics University, said that in e-commerce it is not only about avoiding counterfeits but about securing the customer's rights in full. He proposed that traders supplying goods and services be regulated together with the traders running the platform and the wider e-commerce ecosystem, and that the use of information about sellers and customers on platforms and in apps be put on a legal footing.

Dr Đinh Lê Hải Hà proposes that traders supplying goods and services in e-commerce be regulated together with the platform operators and the e-commerce ecosystem

He also called for stronger management of delivery invoices; for shared liability in fighting counterfeits and protecting consumers; and for stronger technical measures to issue warnings and block fraudulent trading online.

Mr Lê Đức Anh, Director of the Centre for Informatics and Digital Technology at the Agency of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said e-commerce is growing strongly, yet many consumers run into obstacles when shopping online: goods of lower quality than advertised; prices often higher than buying in person; high delivery costs; complicated ordering; worries about personal data being disclosed; poor customer service.

Mr Lê Đức Anh, Director of the Centre for Informatics and Digital Technology, Agency of E-commerce and Digital Economy

"The biggest obstacle for consumers shopping online is the quality of the goods. Often what arrives is nothing like the picture in the advertisement," he said, adding that advanced technology should be applied to identifying sellers and buyers and tracing the origin of goods in e-commerce, in order to fight counterfeits.

Over the past years the Ministry of Industry and Trade's agencies have worked to complete the infrastructure, the legal framework and the policy for developing e-commerce and the digital economy. Most recently, in 2023, the Agency of E-commerce and Digital Economy built a digital ecosystem to strengthen consumer protection, including a system for managing and resolving complaints and disputes online between the public and businesses.

"The digital ecosystem will help protect brands online, secure e-commerce transactions, resolve complaints and disputes, and authenticate and identify the parties in e-commerce," Mr Lê Đức Anh said, expressing the hope that it will make the fight against counterfeits online more effective.

Presenting traceability technology for sustainable e-commerce, Mr Nguyễn Bình Minh of the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) proposed: responsible e-commerce, with goods of good quality that can be traced, and protection of the environment; training businesses in sustainable e-commerce; combining digital tools and developing digital business platforms; accelerating digital transformation in the provinces and narrowing the digital gap between regions; and completing the legal framework for e-commerce and consumer protection in online shopping.

Ms Đỗ Thị Xuân Hương, Intellectual Property Research Institute, Ministry of Science and Technology

According to Ms Đỗ Thị Xuân Hương of the Intellectual Property Research Institute at the Ministry of Science and Technology, the market today offers many anti-counterfeiting solutions: anti-counterfeit seals; image recognition; product tracing; seller identification. Among them the anti-counterfeit seal is the traditional and most common.

E-commerce is a fast-growing distribution channel and a convenient environment for trading counterfeits. Effective product tracing and seller identification are therefore needed, but they must be accurate — able to "defeat the counterfeiting of the anti-counterfeiting technology itself" — as well as convenient and cost-effective.

The institute's representative also recommended that the government issue standards for product tracing and seller identification in e-commerce, consistent and coordinated so that solutions can be deployed easily.

Consumers should adjust their shopping habits, stay alert and cautious, and check the information about the product and the seller carefully. Businesses that sell and ship should ensure goods have a clear origin; once packed, products should carry an anti-counterfeit seal and the seller should be identifiable. "Goods in circulation should be accompanied by an electronic invoice, to counter trade fraud and tax loss," Ms Hương proposed.

Company representatives also shared other anti-counterfeiting technologies and solutions at the forum: V-Mark; traceability seals; the TrueSell solution for seller identification and product tracing; Check.VN; applying traceability and barcodes in production; iSeal technology, origin authentication, RFID-based anti-counterfeiting, blockchain applications, BG anti-counterfeiting technology and more.

According to the experts, in the age of Industry 4.0 it is very hard to control and block the increasingly sophisticated methods of counterfeit distribution channels without modernising anti-counterfeiting technology. Searching out these solutions will help unify national standards, so that the authorities can propose common technical standards for anti-counterfeit seals, serving producers and traders and avoiding the waste of society's resources on each organisation researching its own solution.

Deputy Director General Nguyễn Thanh Bình closing the forum

Closing the forum, Deputy Director General Nguyễn Thanh Bình affirmed its importance for the authorities in fighting counterfeits and protecting consumer rights in e-commerce: to complete policy and law on the subject; to bring about a real shift in awareness so that every level, every sector, the public and businesses willingly follow the Party's direction and the State's law in this work; to protect consumers more effectively in e-commerce and build their confidence in online transactions; to keep e-commerce transparent and healthy and to protect the lawful rights and interests of businesses and consumers effectively; and to promote sustainable e-commerce in Vietnam.

By Quyên Lưu, Directorate of Market Surveillance — [ read the original article here ]

TrueOrigin at the forum

At the invitation of the Directorate of Market Surveillance, we took part in the forum and contributed the iSeal authentication technology and the TrueOrigin origin authentication solution.

iSeal was invented and developed on an entirely new principle: a digital signature that changes and is written back onto the seal. Unlike older static-seal technologies, iSeal can detect and prevent forgery. On that core technology the TrueOrigin origin authentication system is built, with many applications and management functions that serve manufacturers, market regulators and consumers.

Mr Trần Đình Ngọc presenting the TrueOrigin origin authentication solution

Counterfeiting is a social problem that has gone unsolved for years and needs many parts of society to take part. We can contribute the technology, and we also proposed Let us act, setting out the main actions for manufacturers, regulators and consumers to take together.

On the sidelines of the conference TrueOrigin exhibited its products, so delegates and visitors could try a TrueOrigin seal for themselves with the app on a smartphone, along with the machines that support seal issuers, such as the iSR1500 seal issuing machine and the iSeal Reader.

source: the TrueOrigin team