The Chinese internet giant Alibaba has been fined by the Chinese competition authority. The company is accused of violating competition rules by not clearly explaining how much it paid to acquire other companies. It is unclear exactly how much the fine is.
The fine can be up to 500,000 Chinese yuan (about 73,500 euros) per violation. Alibaba broke the rules in five acquisitions. For example, Alibaba acquired the Youku Tudou streaming service but failed to provide authorities with enough information about it.
This isn’t the first fine Alibaba has received from China’s competition authority. In April 2021, the company was fined 18.2 billion yuan, which was equivalent to about 2.3 billion euros at the time. It has been fined for allegedly abusing its power since 2015 by banning affiliated sellers from selling their products on other e-commerce platforms. This violates China’s anti-monopoly policy. Another penalty was added to the fine. Alibaba had to review its business practices and report to the competition authority for another three years.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.