Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

China Fines Alibaba, Tencent in Anti-Monopoly Crackdown


Sat 20 Nov 2021 | 11:17 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

China's top firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu, have been compelled to pay fines for failing to declare corporate acquisitions during the past eight years, according to DW.

China penalised tech titans such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings for failing to register 43 acquisitions over the last eight years as part of a bigger anti-monopoly crackdown.

The enterprises "failed to declare illegal implementation of operating concentration," according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. Assets in the fields of technology, medical technology, and mapping were acquired.

A fine of 500,000 yuan (€71,000/$80,000) is imposed for each infringement.

E-tailers JD.com Inc. and Suning Ltd., as well as the search engine Baidu Inc., were also punished.

CCP takes action against tech behemoths.

In an apparent crackdown on the country's valuable IT sector, China's ruling Communist Party has tightened down on tech monopolies and issues such as data security since late 2020.

The one-party state is afraid that corporations may gain too much influence, and has advised them not to use their clout to rip off customers or suffocate newcomers.

Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce site by sales volume, was fined $2.8 billion (€2.5 billion) earlier this year for anti-competitive conduct, according to regulators. Meituan, a food delivery business, was penalised $534 million last month.