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Beijing (dpa) - China's competition watchdogs have imposed a fine of 18 billion yuan, the equivalent of 2.3 billion euros, on the Chinese Alibaba group.
The world's largest online trading platform has used its dominant position to punish traders who have offered their goods via competing services, state media quoted the market surveillance authority as saying.
The hitherto highest penalty imposed by the antitrust authorities on a Chinese Internet giant arouses new questions about the future of the Alibaba group of the charismatic founder Jack Ma, who has rarely been seen in public since the fall.
With his criticism of the Chinese financial supervisory authority, the 56-year-old had evidently drawn the displeasure of higher officials.
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For violating antitrust laws, the fine was set at four percent of 2019 sales of 455 billion yuan, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Alibaba announced that it would accept the sentence and step up cooperation with the authorities.
The group will strengthen its system for compliance with the rules and “better meet its social responsibility”.
The unusually high punishment of the competition watchdog is another blow against the powerful Alibaba group, which has expanded its activities from online trading and financial services to areas such as logistics, entertainment and tourism.
Since the influential founder Ma fell out of favor with the government in the fall, the company has come under increasing pressure.
At the beginning of November, the authorities stopped the planned IPO of the Alibaba financial subsidiary Ant Group with reference to new rules.
It should have been the biggest IPO of all time.
Investigators also focused on the trading platform in December when the cartel watchdogs began investigating alleged monopoly violations.
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Alibaba's action against dealers who also offer on competing platforms, "eliminates or hinders competition," argued the market regulator in its decision.
It affects the innovation and development of the platforms.
The rights and interests of consumers would be harmed.
According to experts, the billion-dollar fine for Alibaba can be easily coped with.
In the last three months of last year alone, the group made a profit equivalent to ten billion euros.
However, the tightened controls by the authorities do not bode well for the company, observers said in comments.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210410-99-148921 / 2