Indonesia’s Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises is drafting a regulation to cap and standardize the fees that e-commerce platforms charge small sellers, Minister Maman Abdurrahman confirmed Monday after a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta.
The timing is not exactly a coincidence.
A Year of Quiet Fee Hikes
Over the past year, platforms including Shopee, Tokopedia and TikTok Shop quietly rolled out order processing fees of Rp 1,250 per completed transaction, on top of existing commission and administrative charges. Sellers noticed. So did the ministry.
The regulation aims to simplify marketplace fee structures, which many MSME operators currently view as inconsistent and confusing across digital platforms. That is a diplomatic way of saying nobody actually knows what they are being charged or why.
Three Categories. Just Three.
The government plans to standardize charges into three categories: registration fees, service fees, and promotional fees. “Marketplace A uses different terms from marketplace B. People think there are many charges, even though there are only three main components,” Abdurrahman said.
To be fair to the platforms, they have been very creative with the naming.
The Platforms and Their Creative Accounting
As of May 18, 2026, TikTok Shop by Tokopedia introduced what it calls “Platform Commission Savings,” a system where sellers pay standard commission rates unless they spend enough on ads or enroll in a growth program to qualify for lower ones. Savings, in this context, means paying less than the maximum. Progress.
Meanwhile, Shopee set its highest admin fee at 10 percent for fast-moving consumer goods, daily necessities and certain fashion categories, effective January 2026. Small sellers in those categories had a fun new year.
What the New Rules Actually Mean for Sellers
The new rules would push platforms to offer service-fee discounts of up to 50 percent for micro and small businesses, particularly those selling domestically made products.
Sellers who actually read the fine print will appreciate the next part. The regulation would require platforms to guarantee sellers a minimum one-year contract period, and to notify them at least three months before implementing any fee changes. Three months notice, rather than a PDF quietly updated on a Tuesday afternoon, is apparently a radical concept.
Still Waiting on a Signature
The policy is intended to protect smaller businesses from unequal competition with medium and large enterprises on digital platforms. “The government cannot allow micro and small enterprises to compete freely without policies that support them,” Abdurrahman said.
The regulation has completed legal harmonization and is now waiting to be signed at the State Secretariat Ministry. No date has been confirmed. The platforms have not yet commented publicly on the incoming rules.
Sellers can keep refreshing their dashboards in the meantime.
