Vietnam has adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

The Law on Protection of Consumers' Rights and the Law on E-Transactions provide a comprehensive consumer protection framework that also applies to online transactions. The Law regulates the rights and obligations of consumers, the liability of organizations or individuals trading goods and/or services to consumers, the liability of social organizations in protecting the interests of consumers; resolving disputes between consumers and sellers, the liability of the State on the protection of consumers’ interests. In addition, the Law on E-transactions provides the legal framework for electronic signatures and e-transactions.

Vietnam has not signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts.

Since 2019, domestic and international providers of telecommunications services, internet services and value-added services in Vietnam’s cyberspace that collect, analyze or process private information or data about relationships of their service users or data created by their service users in Vietnam shall open branches or representative offices in Vietnam.

Chapter 2 of Decree No.72/2013/ND-CP on .vn domain service regulates that foreign companies that provide .vn domain registration must either establish the business in Vietnam according to Vietnamese law or have a contract with ICANN-accredited registrars. In addition, foreign companies that provide .vn domain registration services must have a contract with the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center on providing .vn domain registration services.

In February 2020, the Vietnamese government issued Decree No.15/2020/ND-CP to regulate administrative violations on post-telecommunications, radio frequency, IT and electronic transactions. Art. 44.1. (d) of the Decree regulates penalties for the activities not using the Vietnamese national domain name ".vn" or not storing information at the server system with an IP address in Vietnam for electronic newspapers, general websites or web portals, and social networks subject to the license. In addition, according to Art. 45.3. (d) of the Decree, companies shall be fined if it does not use primary domain name servers (Primary DNS) using the Vietnamese national domain name ".vn" when providing DNS services.

It is reported that the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is USD 40, below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

In 2015, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Circular 39/2014/TT-NHNN to regulate payments via intermediaries, and the Circular was then replaced by Circular 23/2019/TT-NHNN in 2019. E-payments made via intermediaries such as e-wallet is regulated under this Circular. According to the Circular, owners of e-wallets must link the wallet to a bank account created in Vietnam or via branches of foreign banks in Vietnam in order to make payments in Vietnam.

It is reported that Vietnam has certain barriers in the banking and finance sectors with restrictions on electronic payment. In 2016, two Vietnamese payment processing networks were consolidated into a de facto switching monopoly, the National Payments Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS), which is partially owned by the State Bank of Vietnam. Vietnam then issued Circular 19/2016/TT-NHNN, mandating that all domestic and cross-border retail credit and debit transactions should be processed through NAPAS starting in January 2018. Such a requirement prohibits foreign electronic payment services suppliers from supplying the service fully on a cross-border basis (i.e., without involving NAPAS, a competing service supplier). In November 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam issued a draft revision to Circular 19 that limited the requirements to domestic card-present retail electronic payment transactions and extended the deadline for implementation to 1 January 2021. In November 2019, Vietnam issued a revised draft decree on cashless payments, which seems to cover all mobile, electronic wallets, and related retail electronic payments. This draft decree also prohibits the supply of services and requires commercial presence and domestic infrastructure to supply services. The draft decree also appears to require that NAPAS switch all mobile and electronic wallets and related transactions covered by the draft decree. In addition, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) within Circular No.19/2016/TT-NHNN required organizations that provide financial switching services and electronic clearing services in Vietnam to acquire a license from SBV (Arts. 24-25). Such a requirement remains in the revised version of the circular. The National Payments Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS), partially owned by SBV and other state-owned commercial banks, is the only corporation that provides financial switching services.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) issued Circular No.59/2015/TT-BCT to regulate the management of e-commerce activities via mobile applications. The circular regulates strictly the operation of e-commerce on mobile applications which requires registration to MOIT. The circular applies to all Vietnamese individuals and organizations, foreigners who reside in Vietnam, and foreigners and organizations who have a presence in Vietnam through investment, setting up branches, or representative offices.

Sections 35 and 60 of Decree No. 52/2013/ND-CP provide that certain E-commerce services need to be licensed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade: E-commerce websites that permit participants to sell and purchase goods according to the method of goods exchange; evaluation and certification of personal datas protection policies of traders, organizations and individuals participating in e-commerce activities; and certification of e-contracts.
In addition, Art. 44 states that traders and organizations providing online auction services must register the provision of auction services, and under Art. 52, traders, organizations or individuals may set up sales e-commerce websites if, among other conditions, they have notified the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Also, pursuant to the provisions of Art. 61, one of the conditions for conducting credit rating of e-commerce websites is being a trader or an organization established under Vietnamese law.

Art. 36 of Law No. 86/2015/QH13 states that the responsibilities of users of cryptographic products and services include providing the necessary information on cryptographic keys to the competent state authorities, upon request. The Law also introduces licensing requirements for tools that offer encryption as a primary function.

Chapter 2 of the Law on Cybersecurity, which entered into force in January 2019, regulates information systems for national security. Article 10.2 defines important information systems for national security including:
- Military, security, diplomatic and cipher information systems;
- Information systems that store and process information belonging to state secrets;
- The information system serving the storage and preservation of artifacts and documents of particularly important value;
- Information systems serving the preservation of materials and substances particularly dangerous to humans and the ecological environment;
- Information systems serving the preservation, manufacturing and management of facilities of other special importance related to national security;
- Important information systems serving operations of central agencies and organizations;
- National information systems in the fields of energy, finance, banking, telecommunications, transportation, natural resources and environment, chemicals, health, culture, and journalism;
- Automatic control and monitoring system at important works related to national security, important goal of national security.
According to Arts. 11-13, important information systems need impact assessment, inspection, and control conducted by special forces to protect network security, from the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Defense, and the Government Cipher Committee.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has approved Circular No.15/2020/TT-BTTTT at the beginning of July 2020. According to the Circular, new national technical regulation QCVN 101:2020/BTTTT becomes effective. The QCVN 101:2020/BTTTT makes reference to the IEC 61960-3:2017 and TCVN 11919-2:2017 (IEC 62133-2:2017) with some deviation. This document establishes the requirements for lithium batteries used for portable equipment such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptop PCs. According to the QCVN guideline, Declaration of Conformity must be issued by designate domestic and foreign laboratories, for requirements according to Article 2.6 of the guideline.Domestic and foreign laboratories which comply with ISO 17025, or certificate on manufacturer's experiment can be accepted.

The Ministry of Information and Communications Vietnam (MIC) regulates products and goods requiring mandatory conformity certification and declaration of conformity. The latest relevant document issued is Circular 05/2019/TT-BTTTT. All the product listed on Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 of the Circular need MIC's Declaration of Conformity certification and ICT Mark label before entering the Vietnam markets.