Website Registration with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

One morning you open your email and find a summons from the market surveillance authority. The reason: your company website is selling and running big ad campaigns but has never been registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. A fine of 10 to 30 million VND is hanging over you, along with the risk of losing your domain. This happens more often than you'd think, and it is completely avoidable. MONA Media handles your Ministry of Industry and Trade website registration end to end so you never have to sit through that meeting.

The cost of a website not registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

You paid for a website, hired people to run ads and built a whole online sales team. Everything runs smoothly and revenue comes in steadily.

Then one phone call from the authorities brings it all to a halt.

Theo Under Decree 98/2020/ND-CP, an e-commerce sales website that has not notified the Ministry of Industry and Trade is fined 10 to 20 million VND. A website providing e-commerce services without registration is fined 20 to 30 million VND. For organizations and businesses, the fine is doubled.

The fine is not the worst part.

The same decree also allows e-commerce activity to be suspended for 6 to 12 months for repeat violations, and the ".vn" domain can be revoked. That means the website you have built up for years, tied to your brand, can stop bringing in revenue in the middle of peak season. Your competitors keep selling and customers still need to buy, while you are left on the sidelines.

Losing money hurts. Losing your reputation hurts more.

Customers today are sharp. They look at the bottom of the website, and if they don't see the red "Notified to the Ministry of Industry and Trade" logo, they get suspicious. A serious business website without the government's confirmation mark looks like a shop with no sign. Trust drops right at the moment the customer is about to pay.

Many business owners know they need to do it but keep putting it off, because the procedure is confusing, the online.gov.vn declaration portal is a hassle, and one missing document sends the application back to the start. The longer you wait, the more the risk piles up.

Registering with the Ministry of Industry and Trade is not hard, but if you get it wrong you can lose a whole month going round in circles.

Registration or notification with the Ministry of Industry and Trade: which one applies to you

Many articles online still follow the old rules here, so business owners end up doing too much or too little. Here is how it works under current law.

From 01/01/2022, Decree 85/2021/ND-CP , which amended the old rules, narrowed who has to do this:

Websites that must NOTIFY the Ministry of Industry and Trade

These are e-commerce sales websites you set up yourself to sell your own products and services, and that have an online ordering function. If customers can place orders right on the website, you fall into this group.

A notable change: websites that only introduce the company and display products, with no online ordering, no longer have to notify. Many advisers still say otherwise, based on the old law.

Websites that must REGISTER with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

These are websites providing e-commerce services, where you provide a platform for others to buy and sell. They include marketplaces, online auction websites and online promotion websites. This group has a heavier procedure and a much more complex application than notification.

Getting the classification wrong at the start is why so many applications are sent back. We classify your website correctly before touching any form. If you want to go deeper, read our article on the difference between notifying and registering a website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. For the full list of legal documents and their issue dates, see our article on legal regulations on registering a website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

MONA handles the whole process for you, start to finish

A business owner shouldn't be digging through forms on a government portal at midnight. That is a job for a dedicated team.

When you hand it to MONA, you only provide a few basic documents, and we take care of the rest.

We do it ourselves and never pass it to a middleman. After years of building websites for businesses, Ministry of Industry and Trade registration is something we handle every week, so we know every field on the portal and can tell in advance where an application will get stuck and head it off.

Your side of the process is short: send the website link, sign a few required documents, and you're done. You stay focused on running your business while we handle all the paperwork.

• Classification done right: we determine whether your website needs notification or registration, so nothing goes wrong from the start.
• Website review and fixes: we add the required policy pages, such as a buying guide, privacy policy, returns, shipping and payment policies, plus owner information in the footer.
• Full application package: business license, company information, and any industry-specific documents.
• Declaration and submission: we create the account, declare on the online.gov.vn portal and track the whole process.
• Handling rejected applications: we supplement, correct and resubmit until it goes through, and never leave you halfway.
• Confirmation logo: we add the Ministry of Industry and Trade logo and link to your website once approved.

Once you hand it over, you can forget about it and focus on the big things.

How MONA registers your website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

We keep it to four steps, so you can always see where you are in the process.

Step 1: Intake and classification

MONA looks at your website, asks a few questions about your business model, then confirms whether you need to notify or register. You get a clear quote up front, with no extra costs along the way.

Step 2: Complete the website and application

We check for missing policy pages, add what is needed to meet the standard, and gather the full set of documents to submit. You only sign and send what must carry the business owner's signature.

Step 3: Declare and submit to the Ministry of Industry and Trade

MONA creates the account, declares the website type, attaches the documents and submits on the online.gov.vn portal. All the fiddly technical steps are on our side.

Step 4: Track, respond and hand over

We follow the approval process closely, supplement right away when the authority asks, and add the confirmation logo to your website once approved. You end up with a fully compliant website, free of this risk.

Pricing for Ministry of Industry and Trade website registration

Our pricing is transparent and all-inclusive, with no hidden costs. You know exactly what you are paying for.

*Note: completion time depends on how fast the Ministry of Industry and Trade reviews the application and how complete the initial documents are. For more on the costs, see our article on Ministry of Industry and Trade registration costs and our article on how long Ministry of Industry and Trade registration takes.

Why business owners hand this job to MONA

MONA Media was founded in 2016 and has spent more than 10 years building websites and working with more than 14,000 clients, with an 85% returning client rate. We are not a middleman that takes your documents and passes them on elsewhere.

MONA's team of more than 200 people builds websites and e-commerce platforms and understands website structure from the inside. So when the authority asks for an extra policy page or a change to the footer information, we fix it right on the website, without waiting for a third party.

When something needs fixing, a named person is responsible and the hotline reaches a real person. That is the difference between a partner and a service that just ticks the box.

If you are building a new website or upgrading an old one, also take a look at website design in Ho Chi Minh City and e-commerce website design from MONA. If the website is built right from the start, Ministry of Industry and Trade registration later is easy. To bring in customers, add SEO services to rank at the top for the long term.

Don't let one unfiled form bring down a business that is running well

You have put money, people and a whole year into building a website that brings in orders and an online business that runs steadily, and now it all faces a pointless risk because one procedure is unfinished. Many business owners plan to go onto the online.gov.vn portal and do it themselves later, then pick the wrong type, submit incomplete documents, get the application returned three or four times, and finally give up halfway because a hundred bigger things need their attention. That small-looking procedure just sits there until the day the market surveillance authority knocks on the door.

Ministry of Industry and Trade registration should not cost you any sleep.

Hand it to us. One call and you can stop worrying. MONA takes it on, classifies your website, prepares the documents, submits them and follows up until your website has the red confirmation mark in the footer. You get back to running your business.

Frequently asked questions about registering a website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

Does a website that only introduces the company, with no online sales, need to register?

From 01/01/2022, under Decree 85/2021/ND-CP, a website that only introduces the business and has no online ordering function does not have to notify. Once the website adds ordering features, you need to notify. MONA advises on this classification for free.

Can I register myself, and are there government fees?

You can absolutely do it yourself, and the government charges no fee. What it costs is time, effort and the risk of the application being sent back. We break this down in our article on registering yourself or hiring a Ministry of Industry and Trade registration service.

What does MONA need from you?

Basically your business license, company information and the website link. Depending on your industry, a few specific documents may be added, and we will list them exactly when we take on the job. Get a preview in our article on the procedure for registering a website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

What is the fine for not registering?

From 10 to 30 million VND depending on the violation, doubled for organizations, plus the risk of suspension and domain revocation. The fines are detailed in our article on penalties for not registering a website.

Why does MONA know so much about registering with the Ministry of Industry and Trade?

Because we build websites for thousands of businesses, and registering with the Ministry of Industry and Trade is a task we handle for clients all the time. If you want to understand the root of the issue, read our article on why you must register your website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Contact MONA to register your website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade today

Call us, send your website link, and MONA takes care of the rest. Register your website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade a day sooner and that's one more good night's sleep, with no summons to worry about.

• Hotline: 1900 636 648
• Email: info@themona.global
• Address: 1073/23 Cach Mang Thang Tam, Tan Son Nhat Ward, Ho Chi Minh City
• Online consultation: contact MONA Media