DIGIVESTASI - TikTok Shop risks violating regulations because it does not yet have an e-commerce license but officially opened a yellow shopping cart on National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas). This is further strengthened by the statement of the Minister of Trade (Mendag), Zulkifli Hasan, who emphasized that TikTok Shop has not applied for an online commercial business license.

This is because TikTok and PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk, (GOTO) have agreed on an e-commerce strategic partnership. TikTok has committed to a long-term investment of more than $1.5 billion in Tokopedia. Thus, all forms of transactions will be carried out on Tokopedia, while TikTok Shop is only an advertising tool. "[TikTok] doesn't have [an e-commerce license]. "[The] e-commerce license is Tokopedia selling Tokopedia," Zulhas said after attending the launch of the Buy Local 12.12 campaign, Tuesday (12/12/2023).

Meanwhile, Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade Isy Karim added that TikTok only applied for a business license as social commerce. "TikTok is a social commerce license," said Isy. After the promulgation of Regulation (Permendag) Number 31 of 2023 concerning Business Licensing, Advertising, Development and Supervision of Business Actors in the Field of Trade Through Electronic Systems, the government gave TikTok two ways: assessment. First, pay attention to the e-commerce business license.

Secondly, it remains social commerce as it collaborates with other e-commerce to conduct transactions. As per the strategic partnership between TikTok and Tokopedia, the government has about four months to conduct testing, including the transition of purchasing services from TikTok to Tokopedia. With this TikTok will no longer serve transactions as specified in the Department of Commerce Regulation No.1. 31/2023.

During the testing process, the Government will conduct a review and evaluation in accordance with the Ministry of Trade Regulation No. 1. 31/2023. Isy Karim assured that the government will monitor TikTok and Tokopedia's compliance during the trial period as stipulated in the Ministry of Trade Regulation No. 1. 31/2023.

Tokopedia will later operate as an e-commerce site so that TikTok Shop users will be redirected to an environmentally friendly application for transactions. However, this will not affect TikTok Shop users. Buyers do not need to close the TikTok Shop application to complete the purchase. Because in the future only the back-end system will be connected to the Tokopedia application. However, this will only be realized in the next 3 to 4 months.

Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs Differs

On the other hand, the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Kemenkop UKM) will report TikTok Shop to the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Investment/BKPM. Special Office of the Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Fiki Satari regrets that TikTok Shop has not made any changes since its reappearance at the Harbolnas Summit.

TikTok users can still shop and transact on the platform. "They always sell on their social media, this should not happen, according to the rules it is prohibited, social media is a forum for communication while TikTok makes transactions," said Fiki in a press statement, Wednesday (13/13/2019).

December 2023). He considered that TikTok should only promote products. Meanwhile, transactions are carried out through marketplace partners. The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs still considers that combining trade functions on social media will tend to abuse data and algorithms. "In terms of social media, we want to open up space for links to other platforms or websites," he said. We discussed this note a lot."

He also disagreed with the Ministry of Trade's reasoning that the transaction function that TikTok relaunched was merely a period of adaptation and transformation since the two digital companies merged. Fiki emphasized that the regulation must be fully implemented without any justification for the adaptation process.

Allowing TikTok Shop to provide transaction functionality on social networking apps due to the transition period is considered to be arbitrary behavior. The reason is, so far MSME players must comply with regulatory and licensing aspects as a condition of compliance in running their business. According to him, the need for socialization and adaptation through tests such as User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to test performance, functionality, and security is a natural thing for an application.

However, the trial should be conducted internally and not immediately announced to the public. Fiki said that his office will immediately coordinate with the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Investment, the competent authorities, to resolve the TikTok Shop issue. Meanwhile, digital economy observers believe that the return of TikTok Shop to Indonesia means that several regulations issued by the government need to be adjusted, especially MOT 31/2023.

Heru Sutadi, Executive Director of the IT Institute, said this was because the business model of TikTok Shop, which partners with Tokopedia, is currently considered to violate the regulation. "Yes, the previous regulation [MOT 31/2023] was like that. For example, if the Minister has a different policy, a new regulation must be issued. Heru said on Wednesday (12/12/2023), "If not, then the regulation is violated."