Seller's Home has learned that the Vietnam National Competition Council (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade) recently issued a fine of 2 billion Vietnamese dong (approximately $7,700) to the e-commerce platform Shopee Co., Ltd. for using the promotion "All Orders Free Shipping 0 VND" (Freeship 0đ) on August 8, 2025, which was deemed misleading.

The investigation revealed that during the promotional period, some of Shopee's "0 VND free shipping" advertisements were found to lack transparency in information, with multiple restrictive conditions actually set, preventing consumers from truly enjoying the advertised discounts, constituting misleading commercial behavior. The Vietnam Competition Council ordered Shopee to publicly correct the information through multiple channels and imposed a fine. It is worth noting that in July 2025, Shopee's logistics subsidiary SPX Express was also fined 200 million Vietnamese dong by the Vietnam National Competition Council for similar issues, with the violation defined as "providing buyers with confusing information about products and services to attract customers from other merchants".

Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in Vietnam's e-commerce market, regulatory authorities are becoming stricter in their scrutiny of platform promotional practices. As one of the leading e-commerce platforms in Vietnam, Shopee's logistics and marketing strategies directly affect a large number of sellers and consumers. This penalty reminds all e-commerce platforms operating in the Vietnamese market that promotional language in promotional activities must be clear and transparent, avoiding the use of absolute terms that may lead to misunderstandings.

For cross-border sellers, platform penalties for promotional violations may indirectly affect traffic allocation and promotional activity planning. It is recommended that sellers carefully read the activity rules when participating in major platform promotions to ensure that the promotional information on the product page is consistent with the actual discounts, to avoid being implicated in platform-level compliance issues.