TrueOrigin at the Forum on Anti-Counterfeiting Technology and Consumer Protection in Vietnam's E-Commerce

The forum was attended by more than 300 delegates representing ministries, sectors, agencies, and units that are members of the Project Steering Committee; experts and scientists from the National Economics University and 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 that e-commerce has become a global consumption trend, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognizing the role and importance of e-commerce in economic development, the university incorporated this content into its teaching many years ago. In particular, since the General Department of Market Surveillance coordinated with the National Economics University to open the Market Management major, e-commerce has been one of the university's key focuses.

"E-commerce is an inevitable trend because of the benefits it brings; however, many shortcomings have arisen alongside it, typically the infiltration of counterfeit, imitation, and untraceable goods into business," Mr. Hiếu commented.

Director General Trần Hữu Linh speaks at the Forum

Sharing the view, Director General Trần Hữu Linh stressed that e-commerce is now the main operating environment not only for sellers and buyers but also for the authorities. With this trend, counterfeit and imitation goods sold through e-commerce are becoming increasingly common, and this will be the main front in the fight for the market surveillance force in the coming time. However, for the fight and handling of violations to be effective, the authorities need human resources and, especially, appropriate tools and methods — they cannot "fight with bare hands".

"Without appropriate sanctions, the online space will become a place to store, distribute, and trade counterfeit goods, thereby affecting business operations, reducing consumer trust, and hindering economic development," Director General Trần Hữu Linh said, emphasizing that at previous workshops, we have identified the causes and current situation and proposed solutions to prevent and combat counterfeit goods in e-commerce. Today's Forum will focus on technology solutions to combat counterfeiting.

"Combating trade fraud and counterfeit goods online requires specific technology solutions to identify and verify buyers, sellers, carriers, and products... thereby helping prevent risks" - Director General Trần Hữu Linh stressed.

What technology can combat counterfeiting?

Regarding anti-counterfeiting solutions and consumer protection 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 preventing counterfeit goods but also ensuring the full rights of customers. Accordingly, Dr. Đinh Lê Hải Hà recommended that in e-commerce, merchants supplying goods and services should be managed in association with merchants operating e-commerce platforms and the e-commerce ecosystem. In addition, the use of seller and customer information on e-commerce platforms and application (app) providers should be codified into law.

Dr. Đinh Lê Hải Hà recommended that in e-commerce, merchants supplying goods and services should be managed in association with merchants operating e-commerce platforms and the e-commerce ecosystem

In addition, delivery invoice management should be strengthened; joint responsibility in anti-counterfeiting and consumer protection should be defined; and technical solutions should be enhanced to provide warning levels and prevent trade fraud in the online environment.

Mr. Lê Đức Anh - Director of the Center of Informatics and Digital Technology under the E-Commerce and Digital Economy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that e-commerce is growing strongly, yet many consumers face obstacles when shopping online: product quality lower than advertised; prices often higher than direct purchases; high shipping costs; complicated ordering; concerns about personal information being disclosed; poor customer care services...

Mr. Lê Đức Anh - Director of the Center of Informatics and Digital Technology, E-Commerce and Digital Economy Department

"The biggest obstacle for consumers in online shopping is product quality. Often, after ordering, the goods received are far different from the advertised images" - Mr. Lê Đức Anh pointed out, saying that advanced technology solutions should be applied to identify sellers and buyers and trace product origins in e-commerce to combat counterfeiting.

In recent years, the functional units of the Ministry of Industry and Trade have been working to complete the infrastructure, legal framework, and policies for developing e-commerce and the digital economy. Most recently, in 2023, the E-Commerce and Digital Economy Department built a Digital Ecosystem to strengthen consumer protection, including a system for managing and resolving online complaints and disputes in e-commerce between citizens and businesses.

"The Digital Ecosystem will help protect brands in the online environment, ensure e-commerce transactions, resolve complaints and disputes, and authenticate and identify parties in e-commerce..." - Mr. Lê Đức Anh said, expressing hope that the Digital Ecosystem for strengthening consumer protection will help improve the effectiveness of the fight against counterfeit goods in the online environment.

Proposing product origin traceability technology solutions to promote sustainable e-commerce development, Mr. Nguyễn Bình Minh - Vietnam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) recommended the following solutions: responsible e-commerce business, quality goods with product origin traceability, and environmental protection; training businesses in sustainable e-commerce knowledge; coordinating multiple digital tools and developing digital business platforms; accelerating digital transformation in localities and narrowing the digital divide between regions; and completing the legal framework for e-commerce and consumer protection when shopping online.

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

According to Ms. Đỗ Thị Xuân Hương of the Institute of Intellectual Property Science under the Ministry of Science and Technology, there are currently many anti-counterfeiting solutions on the market, such as: anti-counterfeit labeling; image recognition technology; goods tracking; and seller identification. Among them, anti-counterfeit labeling is the common traditional solution.

E-commerce is an increasingly growing goods distribution channel and a favorable environment for trading counterfeit and imitation goods. Therefore, effective goods tracking and seller identification solutions are needed, while ensuring accuracy, "combating the counterfeiting of anti-counterfeiting technologies"; convenience; and cost effectiveness.

The representative of the Institute of Intellectual Property Science also recommended that the Government issue standard regulations on goods tracking and seller identification in e-commerce, ensuring consistency and uniformity to facilitate the deployment of solutions.

Consumers should adjust their shopping habits, raise their vigilance and caution, and carefully check information about products and sellers. For transport businesses, goods must have clear origins; products after packaging must use anti-counterfeit labels and the seller must be identifiable. "Goods entering circulation should be accompanied by electronic invoices to combat trade fraud and tax revenue loss," Ms. Hương proposed.

In addition, many other anti-counterfeiting technologies and solutions were shared by company representatives at the Forum, such as: the V-Mark solution; product origin traceability labels; the TrueSell solution for seller identification and product origin traceability; Check.VN; applying origin traceability and barcodes to production; iSeal technology, the origin authentication solution, anti-counterfeiting solutions based on RFID technology, Blockchain applications, BG anti-counterfeiting technology... in goods traceability...

According to experts, in the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution, without modernizing anti-counterfeiting technology, it will be very difficult to control and prevent the increasingly sophisticated tricks of counterfeit distribution channels. Therefore, finding anti-counterfeiting solutions will help unify national standards so that authorities can propose common technical standards for anti-counterfeit labels, helping production and business units avoid wasting social resources on researching their own separate anti-counterfeiting solutions.

Deputy Director General Nguyễn Thanh Bình delivers the Forum's closing remarks

In his closing remarks, Deputy Director General Nguyễn Thanh Bình affirmed the importance of the Forum for the authorities in combating counterfeit goods and protecting consumer rights in e-commerce, aiming to complete policies and laws on anti-counterfeiting and consumer protection in e-commerce; create a strong shift in awareness so that all levels, sectors, citizens, and businesses voluntarily comply with the Party's guidelines and the State's laws and policies in anti-counterfeiting and consumer protection; improve the effectiveness of consumer protection in e-commerce, building consumer trust in online transactions and purchases; ensure transparent and healthy e-commerce, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of businesses and consumers; and promote sustainable e-commerce development in Vietnam.

By Quyên Lưu - General Department of Market Surveillance - [ Click the link to see the original article here ]

TrueOrigin at the forum

At the invitation of the General Department of Market Surveillance, we joined the forum, contributing iSeal authentication technology and the TrueOrigin Origin Authentication solution.

iSeal technology was invented and developed on a completely new principle: a dynamic digital signature stored on the label. Completely different from old static-label technologies, iSeal provides the ability to detect and prevent counterfeiting. From the core iSeal technology, the TrueOrigin Origin Authentication system was built with many applications and management workflows that benefit manufacturers, market surveillance authorities, and consumers.

Mr. Trần Đình Ngọc, CEO, introduces the TrueOrigin Origin Authentication solution

Anti-counterfeiting is a social problem that has remained unsolved for many years, requiring the participation of many parts of society. We can contribute on the Technology side, and we have also proposed Let's Act, outlining the key actions for Manufacturers, Regulators, and Consumers to take part in together.

On the sidelines of the conference, TrueOrigin displayed products so delegates and visitors could directly experience TrueOrigin labels through an app installed on their smartphones. Alongside were machines supporting label issuers, such as the iSR1500 label issuing machine and the iSeal Reader card reader ...

source: The TrueOrigin team