China tightens the screws on Alibaba, levies $2.78 billion fine for market abuse

The fine, the largest anti-monopoly fine ever rolled out by Chinese authorities, was imposed after an investigation revealed an “exclusive dealing agreement” that violated Chinese monopoly laws.

Chinese regulators have hit e-commerce giant Alibaba with a record 18.23 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) fine for violating anti-monopoly laws, it was announced on Saturday.

The fine is equal to 4% of Alibaba’s sales in 2019, the Xinhua news agency said in a report on Saturday. (AP file photo)

The fine, the largest anti-monopoly fine ever rolled out by Chinese authorities, was imposed after an investigation revealed an “exclusive dealing agreement” that violated Chinese monopoly laws. The fine is equal to 4% of Alibaba’s sales in 2019, the Xinhua news agency said in a report on Saturday.

The strongly worded statement said the company “abused” its dominant market position since 2015.

Founded by China’s most famous entrepreneur, Jack Ma, once a schoolteacher who became a multibillionaire, Alibaba is possibly the world’s biggest e-commerce company with hundreds of millions of users and billions of dollars in turnover. According to Bloomberg, it is Asia’s “most valuable corporation”.