Sea Limited

In early September 2026, Sea Limited sent Singapore-based employees an internal memo stating that starting with October 2026 payroll, MariBank (Sea's own digital bank) would be the mandatory salary-crediting bank, offering a S$100 Shopee voucher to those who updated their bank details by September 17. Employment lawyers noted Singapore employers cannot legally require staff to receive salary through a specific bank absent a contractual provision, and Singapore's Ministry of Manpower said employers must pay salaries in full and on time and should engage employees on payment options rather than mandate them. Sea later said employees with personal circumstances could seek exceptions via HR, but the initial messaging created a coercive impression and raised conflict-of-interest concerns given the policy funneled staff finances to a Sea-owned financial product.

Singapore-based sellers on Sea Limited's Shopee (and separately TikTok Shop) reported in August 2026 that the platforms auto-generated AI promotional videos and images for their listings without notifying them or obtaining consent, in some cases misrepresenting products (e.g. an independent publisher, Epigram Books, said around 10 of its book listings were affected since March 2026). Sellers said they had no mechanism to remove or replace the AI-generated videos, only an option to disable AI-generated images but not videos, and reported resulting brand-reputation damage. Shopee said it had contacted affected sellers and had safeguards to detect policy-violating content, but did not address whether sellers are informed when AI content is created about their products or given a way to opt out of video generation specifically.

A Federal District (Brasilia) court ruled on June 17, 2026 that Garena and twelve other gaming and platform companies failed to protect children from 'loot box' randomized-purchase mechanics, in a civil action brought by Brazil's National Association of Child and Adolescent Defense Centers (ANCED). Garena, Sea Limited's gaming subsidiary, was fined R$15 million (~$2.9M) over Free Fire as part of a R$298M (~$58.7M) collective judgment against the named companies. The court ordered Garena, within 90 days, to display explicit randomness warnings, disclose item-drop probabilities, deploy reliable (non-self-declared) age verification blocking minors from loot-box purchases, and provide refunds for loot-box purchases made by minors without parental authorization. The ruling is subject to appeal.

Sea Limited's Shopee unit cut hundreds of developer roles in Singapore in May-June 2026 as parent Sea accelerated an AI-led restructuring of its engineering org, including its TensorFlow and recommendation infrastructure teams. Local press coverage characterised the cuts as a sharp shift away from hiring after years of expansion and raised concerns about Singapore's broader tech labor market and Sea's responsibility for displaced engineers.

Sea Limited faced a class action lawsuit alleging materially false and misleading statements regarding its Garena (gaming) and Shopee (e-commerce) business segments. The initial complaint was filed July 2023. A $46 million settlement was reached, with court hearing scheduled for July 1, 2025. The company also conducted multiple layoff rounds in 2022-2023, cutting 3% of Shopee Indonesia staff and withdrawing from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, France, and India.