Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Double Commission

💡 In simple words: When something is exchanged on WikiDeal, two tiny, clearly shown fees help keep the platform and the local group running. No secret charges.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): The Double Commission is a proposed fee structure: each transaction would carry a very small platform fee (about 2-3%) plus a small User Group fee (about 7-8%), both at cost and published openly. It intends to replace the opaque, extractive single fees of commercial platforms.

Origin	🔵 Wikimedia Foundation
Status	Prototype 1 - In testing

Most people who sell a service through a commercial platform discover, sometimes with surprise, how much of the price never reaches them. The problem is structural rather than personal: closed platforms have shareholders to satisfy, so fees tend to grow and stay opaque. The Double Commission aims to take the opposite path: two small, visible fees, each with a clear purpose, so that a provider always knows exactly where every franc goes.

The need: fees people can actually see

Consider Karim, who offers gardening services. On a typical commercial marketplace he might lose 10% to 50% of the price to commissions whose breakdown he never sees. On WikiDeal, the intention is that Karim would see two lines, both published: one for the shared platform, one for his local community. Lower price and transparency are two of WikiDeal's four guiding aims, and this mechanism is where they meet in daily use.

How it is intended to work

Every transaction on WikiDeal would carry two transparent commissions: a very small WikiDeal platform fee and a small User Group fee. Both would be charged at cost and shown openly. The platform fee sustains the common technical and governance infrastructure, while the User Group fee supports the local or thematic community handling the exchange. Exact rate-setting and governance of these commissions are being documented progressively as the platform evolves.

The breakdown: how transactions would be split

To support fairness and transparency, the value of a transaction is intended to be distributed as follows:

• 85% to 90% goes directly to the service or product provider.
• 7% to 8% goes to the local or thematic User Group to fund community organization and support.
• 2% to 3% goes to the WikiDeal platform to maintain the common technical infrastructure and governance.

Who does what

• Providers receive the large majority of the price and can verify the published rates.
• User Groups use their share to organize, welcome newcomers and support local exchanges.
• The platform maintains shared infrastructure at cost, with rates set through community governance rather than by a private owner.

Why it matters for the ecosystem

Keeping fees small, at cost and visible supports flexibility (communities can adapt their local share to real needs), lower prices for everyone, and citizen participation in deciding how the money is used. The point is not that commercial platforms are run by bad people; it is that a community-governed structure removes the incentive to hide or inflate fees in the first place.

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See also: All innovations · R&D Portal