Shopee, TikTok and Lazada Pledge Thai Seller Fee Cuts of at Least 10% as Scrutiny Tightens

Three marketplaces promise relief for Thai sellers

Shopee, TikTok and Lazada have promised Thailand's Commerce Ministry to reduce sales commission charges known as GP by at least 10%, as regulators investigate repeated fee increases and complaints from small businesses. Preliminary estimates put the revenue reduction at about 1 billion baht for each platform, although the period covered by that estimate was not specified.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun is scheduled to announce the cooperation on October 28, 2026. The pledge comes alongside a temporary restriction on fee increases and proposed rules requiring major transport and delivery platforms to explain how they calculate charges.

For small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, the issue is how much money remains after an online sale. Sellers must pay for goods, wages, rent and delivery while also meeting platform charges. A lower commission could leave more money available to buy stock and cover daily expenses.

The initial announcement describes current charges averaging 30% to 35%. Thai SME Confederation president Dr Noppong Teeraworn gives a more specific description of that burden: commissions, GP and marketing charges can together reach 30% to 35% of sales. That makes the precise fee covered by the promised reduction central to the savings merchants will receive.

What would a 10% reduction mean?

GP is the term commonly used in Thailand for a commission or share of sales collected by a platform. Other charges can sit alongside it, including payments for marketing or particular services. A merchant's total bill therefore depends on more than the headline commission.

A reduction of 10% from an existing rate means multiplying that rate by 0.9. For example, a charge of 30% would fall to 27%, while a charge of 35% would fall to 31.5%. Those changes equal three and 3.5 percentage points respectively.

On sales of 1,000 baht, that illustrative calculation would reduce a 300 baht charge to 270 baht, or a 350 baht charge to 315 baht. The saving would be 30 to 35 baht before any other expenses. A reduction of 10 percentage points would produce a much larger saving, so the wording of the final arrangement matters.

The detailed terms remain unannounced, including the start date, duration, eligible merchants and which charges will be reduced. The October 28 announcement is the next scheduled opportunity for the ministry and platforms to explain how the promise will appear on sellers' bills.

Regulators are pursuing several measures at once

Suphajee is working with the Office of Trade Competition Commission, or OTCC, and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency, or ETDA, following complaints from merchants, restaurants and riders. Their concerns cover online marketplaces as well as platforms arranging passenger journeys, parcel deliveries and food orders.

The Central Committee on Prices of Goods and Services, which Suphajee chairs, has invited platforms to explain their costs, commissions and other fees. The review will consider whether charges are reasonable and fair, with reductions possible where the committee considers them inappropriate.

The competition authority has also invoked Section 60 of the Trade Competition Act 2017 to prohibit major platforms from increasing GP and other fees for a stated six months, running from August 2026 to February 2027. Platforms must submit information about their fee structures for examination.

The promised marketplace reductions, the temporary freeze and the proposed disclosure rules have different practical effects. The reduction would lower covered charges. The freeze holds increases in check during its specified period. The disclosure rules would require platforms to explain the basis for setting and changing fees.

The Office of the Council of State has also been tasked with accelerating a law specifically governing digital platform businesses. Suphajee described current oversight as spread across several agencies. That wider legislative effort sits alongside the competition commission's more immediate work on fees.

Repeated increases brought commissions under scrutiny

The competition authority's examination found that Shopee raised GP related charges 10 times between 2022 and 2026, with cumulative increases reported at 433%. Lazada made seven increases over that period, totalling 367%. TikTok's fee changes remain under examination.

The figures describe increases over time. Merchants' current costs depend on the charges attached to their products, services and selling arrangements, making the regulator's request for detailed fee structures important to understanding the burden on individual businesses.

Transport and delivery platforms face scrutiny of their own. The authority identified eight rounds of GP increases among three major operators between April and August 2026. Grab, LINE MAN and Bolt are among the businesses expected to explain their charges.

The investigation follows earlier regulatory action affecting the same marketplace sector. In October 2025, ETDA placed TikTok Shop in its high impact marketplace category, bringing stricter duties involving merchant verification, risk management and reporting. The current fee measures extend attention to the commercial terms faced by businesses using platforms.

Delivery platforms would have to explain their costs

The Trade Competition Commission approved a draft announcement on October 19, 2026, addressing the structure of charges for public transport booked through platforms and delivery services arranged on demand. Public consultation runs from October 21 to November 20.

The proposal covers five categories of platform charges. The descriptions released include service fees, other benefits collected by platforms, revenue shares and waiting charges. Covered operators would have to provide information and reasonable explanations when setting charges or changing them in either direction.

Operating costs and technology investment are among the factors platforms could use to explain a change. The authority wants evidence connecting those factors to the amount charged. For a transport service, relevant costs can also vary with fuel, vehicle type and the time a journey takes place.

Trade Competition Commissioner Worawan Chitarun described the purpose of the proposed announcement as making the payment system easier to examine and fairer for the businesses and service providers involved.

"The objective of the announcement is to make platform charges more transparent and verifiable, while creating greater fairness for businesses and service providers involved," she said.

The draft would require explanations rather than set a maximum GP rate. Worawan said the commission's work centres on relationships between businesses, balancing platforms' ability to earn profits with the ability of merchants and service providers to remain viable.

Why the rules focus on large platforms

The proposed framework targets large operators with substantial market power. Descriptions of its scope include a revenue or sales threshold of about 500 million baht, alongside criteria concerning dominance and market position.

Under the proposed market share criteria, a business holding at least 10% and no more than 33% could fall within the category of having market power. A share above 33% could indicate dominance, with other relevant criteria also considered. Market power means a business has enough influence to shape trading conditions for others.

The authority identified roughly 14 to 15 operators in the transport and delivery platform market, with the largest two together accounting for about 90%. That leaves about 10% divided among the remaining businesses, illustrating why regulators are concentrating on the terms set by the biggest operators.

Smaller and medium operators would have more room to compete under the targeted approach. The commission also intends to examine pricing practices that could drive competitors out of the market, alongside concerns about frequent increases.

Online marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada will receive a separate regulatory framework because their business models differ from transport and delivery services. Both groups connect several sets of users, but the services delivered, costs incurred and payments collected differ.

Riders and restaurants can pay on the same order

Food delivery transactions can generate charges on both sides of a single order: a restaurant pays to reach the customer, while a rider also faces platform deductions. Worawan said this structure makes the distribution of income a central concern.

Bundled orders add another layer. A rider may collect food from several restaurants along one route, while each restaurant pays its own GP charge. The rider's earnings depend on how the platform calculates journey payments, extra stops and waiting time.

Complaints include compulsory participation in bundled deliveries and promotional programmes. Worawan said about 90% of complaints from riders and restaurants concerned GP. Her comments also referred to 37 complaints, while the authority's detailed statistics classify that total across the wider platform sector: 25 e-commerce cases and 12 transport or delivery cases.

For restaurants, the concrete issue is how much of an order's value reaches the business after deductions and promotion costs. For riders, it is how much they receive for the time and distance involved, especially when several orders share one journey.

Complaint records show the scale and status of disputes

The competition authority received 37 platform complaints between January 1 and October 7, 2026, out of 100 complaints across all sectors. Platform cases therefore represented 37% of the total. In 2025, there were 17 platform complaints out of 77 cases, or about 22%.

The 2026 platform count was already 20 cases higher than the full 2025 total, although the periods cover different lengths of time. Across 2023 to 2026, the authority recorded 89 platform complaints: 13 in 2023, 22 in 2024, 17 in 2025 and 37 in 2026 through October 7.

E-commerce accounted for 25 of the 37 platform cases in 2026, roughly two thirds. Allegations included unfair fees, use of market power to require service payments and restrictions on delivery choices. Four cases were not accepted as complaints, one was closed after the commission found no grounds, and 20 remained under consideration.

Transport and delivery platforms accounted for the other 12 cases. Four were not accepted as complaints and eight remained under consideration. The matters being examined included fee requirements, bundled deliveries and compulsory participation in promotions.

The figures show that the commission's work extends beyond negotiating a lower rate. It must also assess specific business practices and decide individual cases, while developing rules for future transactions.

Small businesses want changes beyond commissions

Dr Noppong, the Thai SME Confederation president, said smaller businesses depend on marketplaces, food delivery and social commerce to reach customers while having limited bargaining power. Leaving a platform can mean losing access to an established customer base.

The confederation wants merchants to be able to choose delivery companies and payment systems rather than being directed to a single affiliated service. For a seller, that choice could affect delivery costs, service quality and the ways customers can pay.

Payment choice has also drawn attention outside online marketplaces. A separate concern involves an unnamed major convenience store chain limiting a particular electronic payment option to an affiliated wallet, while continuing to accept cash. Calls for regulatory examination focus on the effects of that restriction on customers and competing payment providers.

SMEs have raised concerns about platforms using merchant sales data to develop competing products and about the systems that rank product listings. A ranking system determines which items shoppers see first. The confederation wants clearer rules on commercial data and greater transparency in those rankings.

Other complaints involve unilateral contract changes, slow transfers of sales proceeds and account suspensions without clear appeal procedures. A delayed payment can leave a small shop short of money for stock or wages. A suspended account can immediately remove its main route to customers.

The next stages of the commission's proposed transport and delivery rules are scheduled as follows:

• October 28, 2026: Suphajee is scheduled to announce cooperation with Shopee, TikTok and Lazada on fee reductions.
• November 20: Public consultation on the transport and delivery draft closes.
• November 23: The commission is scheduled to reconsider the draft following consultation.
• November 30: Legal review is targeted for completion.
• December 4: The commission chairman is expected to sign the announcement.
• December 18: Enforcement is targeted following publication in the Royal Gazette.

The fee pledge could provide direct savings for covered sellers. The wider regulatory programme addresses how platforms calculate charges, explain changes and treat businesses that rely on them for income.

Key Points

• Shopee, TikTok and Lazada have pledged GP reductions of at least 10%, with detailed terms due to be announced.
• Preliminary estimates put the revenue reduction at about 1 billion baht per platform, without a specified period.
• The competition authority has imposed a temporary restriction on fee increases under Section 60 of the Trade Competition Act 2017.
• Proposed transport and delivery rules would require explanations for charges rather than impose a GP ceiling.
• The authority recorded 37 platform complaints through October 7, 2026, including 25 e-commerce cases and 12 transport or delivery cases.
• SME proposals also cover delivery choice, payment systems, sales data, product rankings and appeal procedures.