Billionaire founder Jack Ma’s business empire has been put under particularly intense scrutiny in late October following strong criticism of China’s regulatory system.
Chinese regulators have imposed a fine of 18 billion yuan ($ 2.75 billion) on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., violating anti-monopoly regulations and marking the largest anti-trust fine to be implemented in the country as its main market. The situation is misused.
The fine, equivalent to about 4% of Alibaba’s revenue in 2019, comes amid an unprecedented regulatory crackdown on the company’s shares in domestic stock markets over the past few months.
The business empire of Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma has been particularly under intense scrutiny following strong criticism of China’s regulatory system in late October.
In late December, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced that it had launched an antitrust investigation into the company. The authorities then halted the $ 37 billion IPO from Ant Group, Alibaba’s Internet finance arm.
SAMR said on Saturday that following an investigation launched in December, it was determined that Alibaba has been “abusing market dominance” since 2015 by prohibiting its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms.
It states that this practice violates China’s anti-monopoly law due to free spread of goods and violation of business interests of traders.
SAMR ordered Alibaba to “fully reform” to strengthen internal compliance and protect consumer rights.
The company said in a statement posted on its official Weibo account that it had “accepted” the decision and that it would fully implement SAMR’s decisions. It said that it would also work to improve corporate compliance.
The practice of preventing merchants from listing on rival platforms has been in place for a long time. The regulator stated in the rules released in February that it was illegal.
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