Will online marketplaces raise fees to prevent premature profiteering?

VTV.vn - The continuous adjustment of fees by e-commerce platforms has put significant pressure on sellers, raising questions about the role of regulation in ensuring a transparent and fair business environment.

Illustrative image.

Sellers' profits are being "eroded".

In the context of a rapidly growing e-commerce market, many sellers have expressed frustration as profits are being eroded by successive fee increases. The lack of transparency and unpredictability of these costs has eroded seller confidence in foreign e-commerce platforms, increasing market risk. In the long term, if small sellers – who make up the majority – disappear, the market risks being dominated by a few large brands, reducing competition and consumer choice.

This fact was raised during the National Assembly's discussion on the draft Law on E-commerce. Representative Doan Thi Thanh Mai (Hung Yen) emphasized that this is an extremely important law because e-commerce is currently the infrastructure of the national digital economy . She stated that currently, more than 90% of the Vietnamese e-commerce market belongs to platforms with foreign capital. What is worrying is that many foreign e-commerce platforms are charging very high fees, ranging from 15% to 30%.

According to Ms. Mai, some Vietnamese businesses have implemented a platform model that does not charge fees to sellers, making goods cheaper, more competitive, and directly benefiting consumers. For example, the Hi1 Thuan Viet platform is applying the "F2C" model - from factory to consumer - and does not charge fees to sellers.

These high fees not only reduce the profits of domestic businesses but also increase retail prices. Ms. Mai suggested that the law should include solutions to reduce platform fees to lower prices, benefiting both sellers and buyers, while also encouraging platform models that do not charge fees to sellers, making goods more competitive.

Preventing the risk of "harvesting unripe crops"

Explaining why platform fees in Vietnam are significantly higher than in some major markets in the region, Mr. Vu Trung Thanh, an expert in the field of e-commerce, said that this situation stems from the high level of dependence of sellers.

"The market is currently in a state of 'high concentration' with the dominance of a few big names, making the pressure to reduce fees to attract sellers not intense enough. In particular, sellers who have built a brand and customer base on a particular platform face significant 'switching costs' if they want to move to another platform. This dependence has created a certain 'monopoly' for the large platforms, giving them little incentive to reduce fees or engage in dialogue with sellers," Mr. Thanh analyzed.

Objectively speaking, the Vietnamese e-commerce market is currently in a "capital race" and experiencing rapid growth, forcing platforms to spend enormous amounts of money on technology infrastructure, logistics, and marketing. Charging fees is the main way for them to maintain operations.

However, the rapid increase in fees has a vital impact on businesses, especially small retailers who make up a large proportion of e-commerce platforms. According to experts, their profit margins are severely eroded. For items with profit margins of only 10-15%, a 2-3% increase in platform fees could leave actual profits almost zero.

Small retailers are forced to choose between raising prices (but losing competitiveness) or accepting losses to retain customers. According to Mr. Thanh, this inadvertently fosters a serious power imbalance, creating an unsustainable business environment. The one-sided approach (announcing and enforcing) adopted by the platforms is very similar to "harvesting unripe crops," meaning they exploit the nascent market and the high dependence of retailers to maximize short-term profits.

Avoid abusing your dominant position.

Regarding the management of fees and fee increases by e-commerce platforms, experts believe that Vietnamese law needs to be amended to ensure that business activities in the electronic environment are managed in a transparent and fair manner.

According to lawyer Dang Van Cuong of the Hanoi Bar Association, the fact that e-commerce platforms are constantly adjusting fees in a short period of time shows that the market lacks a suitable monitoring mechanism. Therefore, the State needs tools to control abusive practices of dominant position, especially when the fees can directly harm small sellers.

Essentially, e-commerce operates on a competitive market mechanism. Platforms have the right to adjust fees as part of their business strategy. However, when the market shows signs of concentration, with most large platforms controlling the majority of sellers and buyers, increasing fees is no longer simply a 'market-driven' solution but can have more serious consequences. (Illustrative image.)

Lawyer Cuong argues that the law should establish warning thresholds, obligations for transparency, and a consultation process before increasing fees, instead of allowing platforms to adjust them arbitrarily. Regulatory agencies may not need to intervene by setting specific fee levels, but they should require platforms to justify the fee increase: what costs are being covered, what services are being upgraded, and what benefits are being offered to sellers?

Sharing the same view, expert Vu Trung Thanh believes that fee adjustments should be based on three core principles: transparency, dialogue, and accountability. Platforms need to fully disclose the fee structure, the change roadmap, and clearly explain which services will be improved after the fee increase.

Mr. Vu Trung Thanh, founder of PBS E-commerce Consulting and Development Company Limited.

Simultaneously, it is necessary to establish a formal consultation mechanism with the seller community and associations beforehand (at least 60 to 90 days) when issuing policies. Regulatory bodies can also implement additional support tools to ensure the harmonious development of the market. These include developing a Code of Conduct in collaboration with associations and businesses to create voluntary standards for fee policies and the relationship between platforms and sellers; establishing an independent and transparent dispute resolution mechanism; and encouraging the development of new platforms or multi-channel sales models to reduce dependence on a few large platforms.

In reality, increasing platform fees is not unusual but part of the development cycle. However, the key is how it's implemented. If platforms aim for long-term investment instead of exploiting their position to "harvest prematurely," and the legal framework is perfected towards transparency and soundness, combined with proactive diversification of sales channels from businesses, the Vietnamese e-commerce ecosystem can achieve more sustainable and balanced growth in the future.

Source: https://vtv.vn/quan-ly-san-online-tang-phi-ngan-nguy-co-gat-lua-non-100251201190952632.htm