The Malaysian Competition Commission (MyCC), an independent body that enforces the Competition Act 2010, has announced that they had gotten in touch with Shopee on the 19th of October due to the “escalating public outcry against certain practices of Shopee”.
According to the MyCC, while they welcome and acknowledge the innovation of industry players that has improved the online shopping experience for Malaysians, it also wants industry players to be ‘mindful of their respective conducts’ that might bring up competition concerns or cause harm to their users, which in Shopee’s case would include both customers and merchants. The issue in particular appears to be the increasing complaints and dissatisfaction with Shopee’s first and last mile delivery services.
Following their 19 October meeting, Shopee will need to provide the MyCC with a statement explaining their behaviour and a detailed account on how they’ll be handling these issues internally by the end of the month. The MyCC also noted that they had engaged with Shopee to gain a better understanding of the online marketplace platform along with the logistic industry that works in tangent with them to provide first and last mile delivery services.
“We understand the current challenges that the industry players are facing. However, it should not stop them from providing the best services to the users. In this regard, we will continue our efforts in closely monitoring their future actions to address the recent issues and other competition concerns related to their platforms.
Most importantly, we will not hesitate to invoke our investigation and enforcement powers against any enterprise suspected of infringing the law,” – Iskandar Ismail, MyCC CEO
Now you may have read the MyCC statement and wondered why the body that looks to prevent anti-competitive behaviour is suddenly involved in what are seemingly delivery service issues. This is because if it actually were about the quality of Shopee’s delivery service, the body responsible for checking that out would be the MCMC, not the MyCC.
Instead, Shopee might’ve been called up by the MyCC over its decision to remove the option to choose your preferred courier service of choice last year. When the platform announced last year that they were streamlining their delivery service and no longer letting buyers choose their logistics provider starting 17 June 2021, there was quite an uproar online by users who didn’t like the move.
Pulangkan hak kami untuk pilih perkhidmatan penghantaran. ShopeeExpress sangat mengecewakan, barang disimpan lama tanpa ada kemaskini. @ShopeeMY
— Ikhwan (@JatIkhwan) July 23, 2021
Incidentally, it also wouldn’t be the first time a national trade watchdog got in touch with Shopee over them removing the ability to choose your preferred courier service of choice. Over in Thailand, the Office of the Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) also looked into Shopee last year when they did the same thing up north. As for Shopee Malaysia though, we’ll likely need to wait for an official statement before we know more details about their meeting with MyCC.
