Consolidated Document No. 47/VBHN-VPQH: Law on Consumer Rights Protection (Consolidated to 2026)

Overview

Consolidated Document No. 47/VBHN-VPQH merges the Law on Consumer Rights Protection No. 19/2023/QH15 (passed June 20, 2023, effective July 1, 2024) with the amendment introduced by the Cybersecurity Law No. 116/2025/QH15 (passed December 10, 2025, effective July 1, 2026). The amendment mainly replaces 'information safety and security' with 'network security' in Articles 15 and 19, replaces 'information safety' with 'information security' in Article 16, and deletes the phrase 'network information safety,' in Article 19. Source: Official Gazette No. 175, dated April 1, 2026.

Chapter I - General provisions

• Scope: principles and policy on consumer protection; consumer rights and duties; obligations of businesses; dispute resolution; state management.
• Article 4 lists 11 consumer rights: safety of life, health, and property; access to invoices and full information; free choice; the right to complain or sue; compensation for damages, and more.
• Article 5 lists 6 consumer duties: inspect goods before accepting them, consume lawfully, report violations promptly when discovered, and more.
• Article 8 protects vulnerable consumers (the elderly, people with disabilities, children, ethnic minorities, pregnant women or mothers of children under 36 months, people with serious illness, poor households): all businesses must prioritize and process their requests and cannot refuse service over language or custom differences; only the duty to publish handling procedures and train staff does not apply to small independent traders and small or micro-enterprises, unless that business engages in Chapter III transactions.
• Article 10 lists prohibited acts: deception, harassment, coercion to buy, swapping goods on delivery, refusing refunds for wrong shipments, unlawful data collection. Multi-level sellers are additionally barred from requiring a deposit to join the network; digital platforms are barred from forcing exclusive use of an intermediary platform, manipulating display ranking, or hiding negative reviews.
• March 15 each year is Vietnam Consumer Rights Day.

Chapter II - Business obligations to consumers

• Guarantee safety and quality matching what was advertised (Article 14); warn consumers of any safety risk.
• Protect consumer information (Articles 15-20): publish a data-protection policy (purpose, scope, retention period, protective measures); notify and obtain consent before collecting data or changing its intended use; unauthorized collection, use, or alteration of data is banned; a system security incident must be reported to the state authority within 24 hours; consumers can request access, correction, deletion, or a stop to third-party data transfers.
• Product information, standard-form contracts, and general terms (Articles 21-28): must be transparent and public; unlawful terms unfavorable to consumers are barred; products or services with a large, ongoing user base must have their standard contract registered with the state authority before use.
• Proof of transaction (Article 29): businesses must provide invoices and records; online transactions must let consumers download, store, and print them.
• Warranty (Article 30): businesses must publish a clear warranty policy (duration, scope, exclusions); repair or replace defective items free of charge during the warranty period; replace the product or refund the consumer if three or more repair attempts fail to fix the defect; bear shipping costs.
• Product recalls and compensation for defective-product damages are also covered in this chapter (Articles 31-36); the detailed text of those articles falls outside the excerpt processed for this summary.

Chapter III - Obligations in special transactions

• Section 1 - Remote transactions (Articles 37-38): when selling by phone or online, a business must disclose its identity (name, address, tax code or business registration number), price, fees, VAT, and return policy before the contract is formed. Consumers may unilaterally cancel within 30 days of contracting if information was missing or inaccurate, without penalty except for the portion already used; the business must refund within 30 days or pay interest on late refunds.
• Online transactions (Article 39): applies to both direct online sellers and intermediary digital platform operators. Platform operators must designate a contact point for state authorities and publish operating rules that clearly divide responsibility among the parties to a transaction.
• (Provisions on continuous-service transactions and direct/multi-level sales elsewhere in Chapter III fall outside the excerpt processed for this summary.)

Chapter IV - Role of the Fatherland Front and social organizations (partial excerpt)

• The Vietnam Fatherland Front disseminates policy, monitors how state agencies and businesses enforce consumer-protection law, and reviews draft policy.
• Social organizations engaged in consumer protection are encouraged and may receive state funding; they can advise consumers, run independent surveys and testing, warn consumers of risks, and represent consumers or sue in the public interest on their own initiative.

Note on this summary's coverage

The source text supplied for this summary is truncated partway through Article 50; the original law also contains Chapter V (state management of consumer protection), Chapter VI (dispute resolution), and Chapter VII (implementation provisions), which are not covered here. This is a reference consolidation and does not replace the official text published in the Gazette.