Having bought property in both KL and Penang, this is what I understand:
The Board of Valuers, Appraisers & Estate Agents Malaysia does have a regulation that mentioned an agent can only collect commission from either seller or buyer, but not both.
This is where the loophole comes in, agent in Penang usually co-broke, which means one will represent the seller, and the other will represent the buyer, hence the seller agent will collect his commission from the seller, while the buyer agent will collect commission from the buyer. Which is why from my own experience when viewing properties in Penang, most of the time there will be two different agent present.
In KL, since buyer normally don't pay agent commission, KL agent usually do not co-broke, otherwise he will have to take a cut from his own commission to pay the other agent, or he will charge a higher commission to the seller, and the seller will set their selling price a bit higher, in the end, it's all the same to the buyer.
Above are just my own observation (I'm not an agent), hopefully some agent can share some light on this.
That was really helpful. Never knew there will be two agents involve though i have heard about co-broke. Thank you