Vietnam fines Shopee for misleading free shipping promotion
Vietnam’s competition authority has fined e-commerce platform Shopee VND200 million ($7,590) for providing misleading information to consumers in promotional campaigns.
The decision was issued by the National Competition Commission (NCC) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which said Shopee violated provisions of Vietnam’s Competition Law related to misleading promotional practices intended to attract customers.
Shopee e-commerce platform interface in Vietnam.
According to the regulator, the violation stemmed from Shopee’s August 8, 2025 promotional campaign, which used advertising slogans including “Free Shipping for All Orders,” “Everything Has Free Shipping,” and “Free Shipping Everywhere.”
While the campaign included certain conditions and exclusions, authorities said some communication interfaces failed to fully display the applicable restrictions, potentially causing consumers to misunderstand the scope of the free shipping offer.
The regulator concluded that the incomplete disclosure constituted misleading information under Article 45 of Vietnam’s Competition Law.
In addition to the financial penalty, Shopee was ordered to publicly correct the misleading information across its communications ecosystem, including its e-commerce website, mobile application, and official social media channels.
Vietnam has become one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets, driven by rising smartphone penetration and online shopping adoption.
The local online retail market continued its rapid expansion in the first quarter of 2026 as total gross merchandise value (GMV) across four major platforms, Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada, and Tiki, reached about VND148.6 trillion ($5.64 billion), up 47% year-on-year, according to data from analytics firm Metric.
In Q1, total transaction volume rose about 20% year-on-year to 1.14 billion items. On average, Vietnamese consumers spent nearly VND1.7 trillion ($63.33 million) per day on e-commerce, purchasing roughly 13 million products daily.
Owned by Singapore-based Sea Limited, Shopee remains largest e-commerce platform by transaction volume in Vietnam, making up 56% market share as of Q3/2025, according to the Vietnam Tech & Venture Capital Outlook 2025 by VinVentures, an investment arm of conglomerate Vingroup (HoSE: VIC).
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