Heaptalk, Jakarta — After officially returning its operation several months ago, Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Teten Masduki perceived TikTok Shop remains violates Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade regulation (Permendag) No.31 2023 concerning Business Licensing Advertising Guidance and Supervision of Business Actors in Trading Through Electronic Systems.
“We, at the Ministry of SMEs, have clearly conducted technical coordination between ministries, and TikTok is still violating applicable regulations, namely Permendag No.31 2023. We are deplored with TikTok in practice because TikTok Shop remains integrated with social media.” voiced the Minister.
Teten said that the transition period the Ministry of Trade provided to TikTok had to be evaluated. As is known, the Minister of Trade, Zulkifli Hasan, has given a transition period for TikTok to move the transaction feature within four months. The Beli Local campaign is the first trial program to be held as of December 12, 2023.
“We realize that the Ministry of Trade’s regulations still need to be accomplished. We also continue to finalize the policy and this rule was enacted three months ago. The TikTok Shop transition period has taken five months; it’s time for us to evaluate, and we are still waiting for further steps from the Trade Ministry,” Teten said.
To optimize a healthy ecosystem in the e-commerce sector, Teten also claims that it has proposed a revision to Minister of Trade Regulation No.31 by submitting regulations regarding predatory pricing. In the proposed revision, he asked for additional points regarding the prohibition on selling products below the Cost of Goods Sold (HPP).
Meanwhile, in response to this matter, Chairman of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU), Fanshurullah Asa, revealed that His party will also monitor and coordinate with the Ministry of Trade to maintain investment and partnership commitments and protect MSMEs from taking inappropriate moves.
Previously, PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk and TikTok announced the completion of the transaction to take over Tokopedia shares. With the completion of this transaction, the Tokopedia and TikTok Shop businesses officially merged under Tokopedia, whereby TikTok holds the majority of shares.
The completion of the GoTo and TikTok transaction involved a share transaction settlement, whereby Tokopedia issued new shares to TikTok Nusantara (SG) Pte Ltd, leading to TikTok Nusantara (SG) Pte Ltd holding 75.01% of stocks.
“We have no objection to TikTok’s investment in Tokopedia. We are only pointing out the practice of TikTok Shop, which is still integrated with social media. All related parties must comply, including TikTok, to separate e-commerce features from social media, specifically removing the yellow basket feature before the enactment of Permendag No.31 2023.” affirmed Teten.