Rare: After the Fee-Hike Freeze, Thailand's Shopee and Others Voluntarily Cut Fees by Over 33%

Original title: Rare! After the fee-hike freeze, Thailand's Shopee and others voluntarily cut fees by over 33%

By: Feng Feng

Source: Southeast Asia E-commerce Watch

Cover image source | Pexels

On October 28, Thailand's Ministry of Commerce announced that Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada had agreed to cut mandatory seller fees back to their January 1 levels for six months, reducing total burden by about 1.93 billion baht and benefiting roughly 1.2 million registered and individual sellers.

The news took many by surprise. After all, Thailand had just forcibly pressed the brake on fee hikes — and now the three major platforms were voluntarily cutting fees. How do sellers view this rare concession?

Freeze order and fee-cut order run in parallel

The fee ledgers of sellers on Thailand's local sites have been flipped through many times this year.

In February, Shopee added a 5% technical support fee for certain sellers, and TikTok Shop announced adjustments to its e-commerce growth fee, raising it 0.54% for non-mall sellers.

In March, TikTok Shop raised commissions 1.07% for mall sellers in some categories;

In April, Shopee raised commissions for mall stores on its Thailand local site; Lazada raised commissions to 13% in some categories and adjusted add-on service charges such as “free shipping”

……

Over the past six-plus months, the three platforms not only raised various fees in turn, but also introduced multiple new charges.

The statistics from Thailand's Trade Competition Commission (TCCT) are even more striking: since 2022, Shopee has raised service fees 10 times, up about 433%; Lazada has raised them 7 times, a cumulative increase of about 367%; TikTok is still under review.

According to the Thai E-Commerce Association, with sales commissions, coupon subsidies, marketing fees and logistics support combined, platform charges already account for 22%-30% of sellers' sales revenue. Under the high take rates, about 200 local Thai sellers filed a joint petition to the government, collectively complaining that platforms had raised fees multiple times within a year.

In response, the TCCT issued a mandatory order to six digital platforms including Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop: for the next six months, e-commerce platforms are temporarily prohibited from raising fee rates while officials review their fairness and reasonableness.

By the timeline, this “fee-hike freeze order” will expire around February 2027. During this period, Thailand's Ministry of Commerce stepped in further with talks, persuading the three major platforms to “take another step back”: from December 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027, the platforms will cut mandatory fees back to the level of January 1 of this year, a reduction of more than 33%.

The two mandatory orders interlock in timing, buying sellers nearly 10 months of cost calm.

Of course, the new fee-cut order sets out extremely clear eligibility thresholds and implementation mechanics beyond its six-month window:

By scope, it covers only the three basic mandatory fees — commissions, infrastructure fees and transaction processing fees. Optional marketing fees such as ads, activity service fees and free-shipping programs are not included;

By amount, each platform has reported specific reduction ranges (electronics categories excluded; see the chart below);

By eligibility, merchants must register as “online entrepreneurs” with local administrative or commercial authorities in Thailand after November 1, with individual sellers' annual sales capped at 1.8 million baht and corporate entities at 3.5 million baht.

By mechanism, the new rates will not take effect automatically in the backend — “register first, then enjoy.”

Why does the “relief” feel discounted?

Under layers of restrictions, sellers at the center of the storm do not feel the relief strongly.

The reason is clear — the two six-month orders did not scratch where it itches. Tracing this year's hike timeline shows this so-called fee cut is not a real concession; it simply rolls back the first three rounds of increases this year.

And the real cost driver lies in marketing spending — ad bidding, coupon subsidies and activity service fees.

A survey by the Thai E-Commerce Association of more than 500 local companies confirms that combined basic platform fees already account for 22%-40% of sales, pinning sellers' average net margin at just 2.3%.

More critically, the association notes that beyond basic fees, merchants often add another 10%-20% in ad-spend costs — and that single item alone approaches or even exceeds the basic fees themselves.

In recent years, “pay to play” has become an undisputed consensus among sellers.

With basic rates cut by only three to five points, many sellers say the reduction cannot begin to cover ever-rising operating costs. Some sellers note that beyond ad bidding getting pricier, Thailand also levies taxes on ads, and platforms periodically fine-tune ad algorithms or billing rules.

Some sellers joke that the fee cuts cannot keep pace with the deductions.

Cross-border stores face an even more awkward and complex situation. Because this fee-cut policy targets Thai local “online entrepreneurs” precisely, most cross-border stores not only miss out on this thin dividend but also continue to bear basic rates far higher than local stores.

Add the import tariffs and value-added tax (VAT) fully rolled out in Thailand this year, and combined tax deductions plus platform commissions can approach 50%.

Stepping back further, even counting only these reduced basic fees, the share spread across each seller is a drop in the bucket.

The officially announced relief totals 1.93 billion baht, planned to cover about 1.2 million registered and individual sellers. But a quick calculation shows: during the six-month protection period, the average single store saves only about 1,600 baht (roughly RMB 316), which works out to less than 300 baht per month.

With the math clear, the question sellers most want to ask is — what about after six months?

In fact, the targeting of this relief is clear: it is a temporary solution by the Thai government to respond to local SME sellers' demands. Legislation is the real endgame of this tug of war. The government's ultimate goal is to bring e-commerce platforms' fee-setting power fully into the regulatory framework.

As for where rates go after the window expires on June 1, 2027, it will be the first test of how the legislation performs.

If the legal framework lands smoothly by then, rate hikes must go through transparent procedures, the frequent fee-hike phenomenon may be contained, and sellers will gain more room to adjust cost models, mine high-margin categories, and evaluate the ROI of platform marketing activities.

But if legislation lags and the strong regulatory constraints are lifted, the odds of rates creeping back up are unlikely to be small.