Alibaba’s antitrust review comes to a close after 3 years of government scrutiny
The State Administration for Market Regulation praised Alibaba for its compliance with the antitrust authority, giving the firm full recognition
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s market watchdog, praised Alibaba for its compliance with the antitrust authority, putting an official end to more than three years of regulatory scrutiny that has hung over one of China’s largest tech firms. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The approval comes at a time when the Chinese authority is trying to boost confidence in the private sector, as Beijing’s 5 per cent economic growth target for 2024 looked to be at risk amid a property market slump and weak consumer spending. Alibaba, which runs the Taobao and Tmall online markets, is often seen as a proxy of Chinese consumer spending and economic vitality.
“From the inspection and evaluation, Alibaba Group has completely stopped the monopoly behaviour of ‘picking one from two’,” the regulator said in a statement on its website. It added that the “rectification work” at Alibaba has achieved good results. The “picking one from two” tactic, in which online merchants are forced to choose only one e-commerce platform as their exclusive distribution channel, is defined as a monopolistic behavior.
“Alibaba is a representative private enterprise in China, and this announcement is a timely boost to market confidence,” said Yuanpu Huang, founding partner of industry consulting firm EqualOcean. He added that while the domestic e-commerce market has reached maturity, Alibaba’s ability to regain momentum will largely depend on its future investments in its overseas business, given its status as a company with significant international influence.
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China kicks off antitrust probes into Alibaba over alleged monopolistic practices
Alibaba’s stock in Hong Kong gained 3 per cent on Friday, and its shares in New York edged up 4.3 per cent in pre-market trading at US$81.
