China: Alibaba fined 49 3.49 billion for monopoly practices

Chinese state media on Saturday fined e-commerce group Alibaba 18.2 billion yuan ($ 3.49 billion) for abusing its dominance.

The fine follows an investigation into Alibaba, which began in December, according to China’s new agency.

Alibaba has been accused of needing specialization from merchants who want to sell their products on its platform and avoiding rival e-commerce sites.

According to New China, the amount of the fine was decided after regulators decided to impose a fine on Alibaba in line with 4% or 455.7 billion yuan in 2019 revenue.

Alibaba and other major Chinese tech companies are under pressure amid growing concerns over their influence in China, where customers are using these popular platforms to communicate, shop, pay bills, book taxis, borrow and host a whole host of other daily tasks.

Alibaba in particular has been under intense scrutiny since last October. Jack Ma, co – founder of China’s regulators, has accused Alibaba’s finance arm, Ant Group, of worrying about expansion in the debt, wealth management and insurance sectors.