The National Competition Commission (VCC) recently issued a decision to administratively fine Shopee Co., Ltd. 200 million VND. This penalty stemmed from the company providing misleading information to customers regarding a promotional program on 8/8/2025.

Specifically, at that time, Shopee used phrases such as "Freeship 0D moi don", "Gi cung Freeship", and "Giao toi dau Freeship 0D moi don toi do" to advertise free shipping offers. While these promotions included notes with exclusion conditions, some communication interfaces for the program did not fully display these conditions, leading to user confusion.

According to data reported by the platform, nearly 94% of orders during this promotional period had 0 VND shipping fees. The remaining orders either received a partial reduction or no shipping fee reduction because they did not meet the applicable conditions.

The VCC stated that Shopee provided information and documents during the investigation. In addition to the monetary fine, the platform corrected the information on its website, application, and affiliated social media pages. Shopee also stated that it will continue to review and enhance the transparency of its communication activities to provide complete and accurate information about promotional programs.

An advertisement for Shopee's 0 VND shipping fee program. *Photo: Shopee*

Despite this penalty, Shopee retained its leading position in Vietnam's multi-category online retail platform market last year, according to the Southeast Asia e-commerce market report 2025 by venture capital firm Momentum Works (Singapore). The platform achieved a gross merchandise value (GMV) of over 11,8 billion USD in 2025, equivalent to a 58% market share. TikTok Shop followed, accounting for 39%, while Lazada and Tiki collectively shared the remaining 3% market share.

Vien Thong