Advertising spam: Need a strong enough sanction

Recently, the form of advertising via email (spam) appears quite a lot. While legal issues are still controversial, everyday Internet users still suffer from spam "bombs".

Along with the explosion of information technology, the forms of advertising via e-mail directly to customers are also advertised thoroughly exploited to promote products and services to consumers. use.

Mr. Tran Thanh Hai - Deputy Director of Electronic Commerce Department (Ministry of Trade) said that in addition to the outstanding advantages mentioned above, electronic advertising also revealed many limitations. The first is discomfort, disturbed when internet users have to receive unwanted messages, but cannot prevent it. Moreover, many letters have different forms and contents, such as inviting to support the poor, but when opened, the content of advertising products and services.

However, according to Mr. Hai, the biggest problem is not the discomfort of individual users, but also the indirect influence of electronic advertising on general email communication when advertising letters. Electronic problems have been sent abroad. As a result, a series of e-mails from Vietnam cannot be sent abroad because of measures to prevent or be included in spam filters.

Currently there are no specific statistics on how many businesses advertise electronic advertising, but obviously there has been a trend of applying electronic advertising forms. This phenomenon is not uncommon if not a good signal of the economy.

Source: news.com.au Vietnam's average economic growth of 7-8% per year is an effective "catalyst" for the establishment of businesses that increase advertising demand. On the other hand, after Vietnam joins WTO, the investment and business environment will be strong, the wave of foreign investment into Vietnam will be stronger. But the more you invest, the higher the cost of advertising, which is the favorable condition for electronic advertising to grow.

However, in response to the requirements of reality, Vietnam's regulatory system has not yet been completed, not yet meeting the speed of development of electronic advertising. Currently, only the Advertising Ordinance, Decree 24 / CP, and Circular 43 / BVH-TT are mentioned to advertise via electronic means. Moreover, these documents contain many complex rules, not feasible.

Many advertising companies claim that such regulations take time and business opportunities, but management results are often not as expected. Besides, the current law lacks regulations for commercial advertising such as email, mobile phone . And there is no regulation to protect consumers' rights in this form of advertising.

In order to meet the actual demand, the Ministry of Trade has directed the E-Commerce Department to build a Regulation on consumer protection using TDT - a form of commercial advertising through electronic means, causing the most "urgent" problems. now on.

Central regulation addresses three main groups of issues. The first is the regulation on the content and form of advertising email. In particular, there must be a mechanism for denying, ie when the recipient does not want to receive it, they will send feedback to the sender and within five days the sender must stop sending the message. In addition, there are regulations on the consistency between the content and the title of the letter, avoiding confusion for users. The second is the group specified for the sender. The view of the Ministry of Trade is not to restrict traders who use this form of advertising, but must register with the Internet service provider (ISP). When customers respond, ISPs may stop providing services to the sender. Thus, if the sender does not register, it is not possible to email bulk advertising. Finally, the set of rules for ISPs. They are responsible for coordinating with state agencies and coordinating with each other in monitoring and handling violating service users, avoiding being cut off services in this network and switching to another network and recidivism. .

However, only at the Decision level, the sanctions are very limited, but only the sanctions stipulated in the Decree on administrative sanctions in the field of trade are applied (currently under the Department Market Management drafted) so the effect will not be high.

According to Mr. Hai, this is one of the biggest difficulties in the process of building this decision. In addition, the difficulty is to prevent email from abroad sent to Vietnam, the type of mail accounts for a large amount of spam in Vietnam. Hopefully in the future, we will have legal documents to adjust the field of electronic advertising more complete, ensuring consumer rights and encouraging the development of electronic advertising forms.