Towards responsible governance of algorithmic display systems in e-commerce: Legal challenges and policy responses in Vietnam
Palabras clave:
Algorithmic Accountability, Ranking Systems, Recommender Systems, Self-Preferencing, Platform Governance, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Comparative Law, Consumer Protection, VietnamResumen
Current ranking and recommendation systems determine which products and sellers appear on e-commerce platforms, thereby influencing the distribution of market opportunities and consumer attention. This article is planned to solve a single question: how should Vietnamese law govern algorithmic display systems, given the present enforcement capacity of Vietnamese regulators and the legitimate confidentiality interests of platform operators? The study employs a qualitative legal analysis of Vietnam’s Law on E-commerce (No. 122/2025/QH15), Law on Competition (No. 23/2018/QH14), and Law on Protection of Consumer Rights (No. 19/2023/QH15); compares the legal frameworks of the European Union, the United States, and China based on ten common criteria; and conducts a policy analysis regarding institutional feasibility. The study yields three main findings.First, Vietnamese law imposes disclosure duties in Article 15(1)(dd) and Article 11(3) of the 2025 Law on E-Commerce and Article 10(3)(b) of the 2023 consumer law, without defining ranking or recommender systems, so that the object of the duty remains legally indeterminate. Next, the power to demand an algorithm description under Article 17(3)(d) of the 2025 Law is purely reactive and is not supported by any record-retention duty, leaving regulators without the very evidence the power presupposes. Then, the five-day notice under Article 17(2)(g) requires a warning but not a statement of reasons, so a demoted seller learns that a restriction is coming without learning why. The article's contribution lies not in the three governance principles it deploys transparency by design, algorithmic choice, and risk-based accountability which are all established in the literature, but in their integration into a graduated conditional accountability model in which baseline duties bind every platform while enhanced duties attach only upon defined risk triggers. The article outlines the necessary activation factors, the retention period for audit purposes, the competent authorities, and the evidentiary consequences of non-compliance.
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