Government Tightens E-Commerce Rules, New PMSE Regulation Targets Millions of Businesses

The government is tightening governance of digital trade through the issuance of Trade Minister Regulation No. 19 of 2026 concerning the Implementation of Trading Through Electronic Systems (PMSE). This policy comes amid the rapid growth of e-commerce businesses, which are now dominated by micro-enterprises, and aims to ensure licensing compliance without hampering the development of MSMEs.

Acting Deputy for Partnership and Media Relations at the Government Communication Agency (Bakom) RI, Kurnia Ramadhana, stated that digital transformation has spurred a surge in online trading activity in Indonesia. However, the large number of digital business actors also brings challenges in terms of legality and regulatory compliance.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of e-commerce businesses in 2024 reached 4.4 million, an increase of 15.3 percent compared to the previous year. Of this total, 42.02 percent of businesses nationally have conducted online sales.

“These e-commerce businesses are dominated by micro and small enterprises, accounting for 97.38 percent,” Kurnia said at the Bakom RI office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, 15 July 2026.

This dominance shows that Indonesia’s digital trade landscape is currently supported by MSMEs. However, its distribution is still uneven, with most e-commerce activity concentrated on the island of Java, particularly in West Java, East Java, Central Java, and DKI Jakarta.

In terms of legality, the government also noted that the majority of digital business actors are on a micro scale. Based on Online Single Submission (OSS) data as of 25 February 2026, a total of 15.4 million Business Identification Numbers (NIB) have been issued. Of these, around 14.9 million, or more than 96 percent, are micro-enterprises, while the remainder are small, medium, and large enterprises.

“This figure shows that the majority of business actors in the digital ecosystem are still micro-scale. They generally still face challenges in fulfilling comprehensive licensing obligations on digital platforms,” Kurnia explained.

These conditions form the basis for the government’s issuance of Trade Minister Regulation No. 19 of 2026. The regulation is designed to strengthen the implementation of and compliance with business licensing obligations within the PMSE ecosystem, while creating a more orderly digital trade governance.

“The goal is to strengthen the implementation and compliance with business licensing obligations in the PMSE ecosystem, as well as to create a digital trade ecosystem that is more orderly, healthy, and provides legal certainty for business actors and consumers,” Kurnia stated.