Indonesia's Ministry of Trade signed Regulation No. 19 of 2026 (Permendag 19/2026) on 4 June 2026 and promulgated it on 8 June. According to the ministry's legal portal, JDIH Kemendag, it governs the operation of trading through electronic systems (perdagangan melalui sistem elektronik, or PMSE) and replaces Permendag 31 of 2023. In the days after publication, social media posts said it obliges creators and influencers who take endorsements, monetise content or sell online to hold a business licence. The regulation itself is an e-commerce rule, and the legal commentary is more cautious than the posts.
What the regulation is
The ministry's own explainer, an infographic published on 4 August 2026, says the regulation covers trade in goods facilitated by platform commerce features. It does not cover transport services on ride-hailing platforms, and it reaches online travel agents only for trading activity carried out through electronic systems. It is an e-commerce rule with social commerce inside its scope, not a creator-specific law. The law firm MUC, in a note dated 12 June, adds that the licensing duty extends to state-owned and regional-government-owned enterprises, and that platforms operating marketplace, classified-ad, daily-deal, social-commerce, ride-hailing and online-travel models must provide a complaints service for merchants.
Where creators come in
Veritask's article-by-article analysis, published on 29 June, reads Articles 2(2) and 4(1) as treating content creators who sell goods or services on social media as domestic merchants who need a business licence, with a trade-sector business identification number (NIB) as the baseline. It says the duty applies to creators with a commercial purpose, such as those who receive endorsements, monetise content, join affiliate programmes or sell through social commerce, and not to creators who make content purely as a hobby or for personal documentation. The law firm SIP Law Firm, writing on 6 July, agrees that not every content creator must hold an NIB, and frames the test as whether the activity has the characteristics of a business, such as consistent income from platform monetisation, endorsements, sponsorship, affiliate schemes or sales. SIP grounds that test in the general risk-based licensing rules and the 2025 business classification rather than in Permendag 19/2026 alone. In short, the sources agree that hobby creators are outside the rule, and they leave open how far income from endorsements alone triggers the duty.
What platforms must do
Two obligations fall on platforms, according to the summaries. First, platforms should offer a temporary registration route that labels merchants without an NIB as “Dalam Proses Legalisasi”, meaning legalisation in progress. MUC confirms the label and says merchants must complete licensing within six months of registering. Veritask cites Article 17(5) for the consequence: if the licence is not obtained by the end of that period, the platform must stop trading through the account. Second, Veritask reads Article 25(3) as barring social-media platforms from facilitating payment inside their own systems, so creators can promote products and run live shopping, but checkout has to happen elsewhere.
Timing
Veritask reads Article 74 as giving merchants and creators who were already selling before 8 June 2026 until 8 December 2027 to comply. That date rests on a single secondary analysis, so anyone relying on it should check the official text on JDIH Kemendag.
What it could mean for MCNs and agencies
This section is MCN Indonesia's reading. For MCNs that manage affiliate creators on TikTok Shop and Shopee, the practical question is which of their creators are, in effect, merchants: those who sell their own products, run shops or earn from live selling. Agencies can help by asking creators about their licensing status, keeping records of who sells what, and watching for the “in progress” label on platforms. Creators who only publish sponsored content sit in an area the commentary handles differently, and written advice is safer than relying on social media summaries.
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