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China: Alibaba fined more than 2 billion euros for monopoly practices

2021-04-10T10:05:12.093Z


Regulators have decided to impose a sanction corresponding to 4% of the turnover of the e-commerce giant.


Chinese authorities have fined the online trading group Alibaba a giant 18.2 billion yuan (2.31 billion euros).

They accuse him of an abuse of a dominant position.

This fine follows an investigation initiated against Alibaba last December, according to the China New Agency.

Alibaba was accused of requiring exclusivity from merchants wishing to sell their products on its platform, avoiding rival e-commerce sites.

"Since 2015, the Alibaba group has abused its dominant position in the market" to gain an unfair advantage with the requirement of exclusivity, the regulator said.

This behavior has restricted competition and innovation in the sector and violated the rights and interests of businesses and consumers, he added.

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The record fine is nearly three times the amount of nearly $ 1 billion (around 830 million euros) imposed on US telecommunications company Qualcomm in 2015, according to Bloomberg.

The amount of the penalty was determined after regulators decided to impose a fine on Alibaba corresponding to 4% of its 2019 revenue, or 455.7 billion yuan (about 58 billion euros).

"We sincerely accept this sanction and will adhere to it firmly," Alibaba briefly reacted in an online statement.

The group is also committed to bringing its activities into compliance with regulations "and to better assume" its "social responsibilities".

An IPO stopped at the last minute by the state

Alibaba and other major Chinese tech companies face pressure amid growing concern over their influence in China, where consumers use these leading platforms to communicate, shop, pay bills, book. taxis, taking out loans and a whole host of other daily tasks.

Alibaba, in particular, has been under intense scrutiny since October 2020. Its co-founder, Jack Ma, then accused Chinese regulators of being behind their time for expressing concern about the expansion of the market. Alibaba's financial arm, Ant Group, in the areas of loans, wealth management and insurance.

China seeks to curb personal debt and chaotic loans.

The growing importance of Ant along with the rare public criticism of Jack Ma was seen as a challenge to the state-dominated financial sphere in the country.

E-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.

com, along with messaging and gaming colossus Tencent, have taken advantage of the digital boom in Chinese people's lives and the government's ban on major US competitors in the domestic market to become some of the most listed in the world.

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Even before the announcement of this Saturday, the Chinese repression has already cost Alibaba and Jack Ma dear. In November 2020, Chinese regulators stopped in extremis a colossal IPO at 34 billion dollars (28 billion euros) Ant Group, an Alibaba online payment subsidiary, before ordering it to revert to its original skills as an online payment service provider.

The stocks of major tech players have suffered from the intensification of oversight of major tech platforms.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Alibaba is also under pressure to divest itself of a wide range of media assets, including a potential sale of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2021-04-10

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