mandag 12. april 2021

Alibaba accepts record China fine and vows to change

Chinese tech giant Alibaba said on Monday that it accepted a record penalty imposed by the country's anti-monopoly regulator. Regulators slapped a $2.8bn fine after a probe determined that it had abused its market position for years. The fine amounts to about 4% of the company's 2019 domestic revenue.

Alibaba Group's executive vice chairman Joe Tsai indicated that regulators have taken an interest in platforms like Alibaba as they grow in importance. "We're happy to get the matter behind us, but the tendency is that regulators will be keen to to look at some of the areas where you might have unfair competition," he told an investor call on Monday. The company added that it was not aware of any further anti-monopoly investigations by Chinese regulators, though it signalled that Alibaba and its competitors would remain under review in China over mergers and acquisitions.