That is correct.
When an OTA (such as Booking.com, Expedia) needs to process a cancellation of a booking to which cancellation fees apply, the hotel needs to be informed about this (usually via phone call) by the online travel agent. Hotel either agrees on cancellation without posting the fee (in order to open up the inventory) which means that cancellation of the booking is processed with no fees posted or disagrees and the reservation stays in the system (and will most likely be manually processed as a no-show where cancellation fee applies).
Therefore, cancellations sent to the system automatically will never have cancellation fee posted.