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Sky-High Commissions? Let’s Talk About That

You sold a $5,000 bottle. You earned $3,500. The buyer paid $5,800. Where did the rest go? CruTrade eliminates unnecessary fees by fixing the infrastructure, not patching it.

Commission fees used to be the price of convenience. Today, they’re a silent tax reshaping entire industries from e-commerce to real estate, financial services to education. Hidden behind the scenes, they drain value from consumers, suppress innovation, and erode margins for the very businesses they claim to support.

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And in many cases, they’re rising fast.

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This is the commission inflation crisis: a quiet but powerful shift in how wealth moves, how platforms operate, and how costs are passed along usually to the people with the least leverage.

Let’s break it down.

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The Scope of the Problem

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Across nearly every sector, commission rates are rising. In real estate, U.S. commissions still average 5.44%, often translating to tens of thousands of dollars per transaction. In e-commerce, fees have jumped virtually overnight from 2% to 3.5% on some platforms, with little warning and no negotiation.

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For example, in Southeast Asia, TikTok raised its transaction fees in Malaysia from 2.16% to 3.78%. Shopee pushed its rates up to 10% in some markets. In Vietnam, platforms began charging new “infrastructure fees” per order, adding cost at scale.

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It’s not just a local issue. The White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates that hidden fees, including commissions, cost U.S. households more than $90 billion annually, or over $650 per household.

The pattern is consistent: the platforms tighten their margins, sellers eat the difference, and prices creep higher for buyers. It's inflation by another name.

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Real Estate: A Case Study in Inefficiency

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Real estate was supposed to be the one sector where competition could drive fees down. But the opposite is happening.

Despite a major legal settlement by the National Association of Realtors aimed at lowering commissions, recent data shows that rates for homes under $500,000 have increased, rising from 2.42% to 2.46% per agent.

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This reversal disproportionately affects first-time buyers and those in lower-income brackets. And because commission is often built into the sale price, it artificially inflates housing costs for everyone.

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Research from the Consumer Policy Center confirms that percentage-based commissions distort the market. Buyers pay more. Sellers receive less. And the middlemen win either way.

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Financial Services: When Incentives Go Sideways

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Nowhere are commissions more baked-in, and more dangerous, than in financial services.

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A European Commission study revealed that some investment advisors earn up to 99% of their income from commissions paid by product manufacturers. That creates what economists call “conflicted remuneration”—where advisors are financially incentivized to recommend what pays best, not what performs best.

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Clients often end up with underperforming funds. Providers inflate their prices to compete for advisor placement. And retail investors, once again, are left footing the bill.

Some countries, like the UK and the Netherlands, have banned these commissions entirely, shifting to fee-for-service models. But many jurisdictions still rely on systems where advice is compromised from the start.

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Education: The Hidden Drain on Learning

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In the international education sector, commissions have reached eye-watering levels.

Some private program providers now pay up to 35% to recruitment agents. That means for a £2,000 weekly program, £700 goes to the agent before teaching even begins. What’s left must cover staffing, accommodation, facilities, and margin.

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The result? Rising program fees, shrinking value, and increased financial pressure on students especially those from emerging markets, who are already carrying the highest debt burden.

It’s a clear example of how commission structures, when left unchecked, undermine long-term sustainability.

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Affiliate Marketing: The Arms Race

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In the SaaS world, affiliate commissions often sit around 30%. But as competition for clicks and referrals grows, companies are pushing those rates even higher sometimes with no clear link to conversion performance.

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This has created a commission arms race. Platforms compete on payouts, not product. And as the ceiling rises, those costs get baked into pricing models, ultimately inflating what the customer pays.

It’s unsustainable and it’s happening across industries.

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The Hidden Economic Cost

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Rising commission structures don’t just affect individual sectors. They ripple through the economy.

Businesses facing higher platform or intermediary fees typically respond in one of four ways: raise prices, reduce service quality, cut operational spending, or accept lower margins. None of these improve the customer experience. All of them push value away from the buyer and seller and toward intermediaries.

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In extreme cases, high commission rates create moral hazard. Advisors push products they’re paid to promote. Platforms recommend sellers who pay the highest fees. Transparency drops. Trust erodes.

And in the end, consumers carry the burden without realizing it.

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Is Regulation the Answer?

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Governments are beginning to pay attention. The European Union has introduced rules to limit unilateral fee hikes by digital platforms and increase disclosure requirements. In the U.S., some cities have capped commissions on food delivery services.

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But regulation comes with risk. Heavy-handed policies can suppress innovation or force platforms to retrench. At the same time, inaction allows bad practices to spread unchecked.

What’s needed is a balance: transparency, accountability, and structural change that rewards actual value. Not rent-seeking behavior.

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Where We Go From Here

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Solutions are emerging. Some industries are experimenting with flat-fee models, performance-based compensation, and consumer education campaigns. Others are pushing for voluntary standards on commission caps or unified disclosure rules.

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But real change will require collective action. Buyers need to demand clarity. Sellers need to resist platforms that extract value without adding it. And regulators must build frameworks that encourage competition without punishing efficiency.

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We need systems that reward real outcomes, not inflated commissions.

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What CruTrade Does Differently

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At CruTrade, we reject the idea that high commissions are just the cost of doing business.