China hits travel giant Trip.com with $765m penalty

BEIJING, July 25: China's market regulator said Saturday it had fined and confiscated 5.18 billion yuan ($765 million) from the country's largest online travel provider Trip.com Group for violating monopoly laws.

Beijing has previously taken tough regulatory action on major internet companies over monopoly charges, notably launching an aggressive crackdown on tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba in late 2020.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) had opened an investigation in January into Trip.com Group for "suspected abuse of its dominant market position in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law".

The SAMR said on Saturday that it had determined that Trip.com had "abused its dominant market position", confiscating 1.66 billion yuan in illegal gains from the company and imposing a fine of 3.52 billion yuan.

Trip.com was found to have engaged in anticompetitive practices such as implementing "exclusive dealing arrangements" with hotels and forcing some operators to "forgo operations on other competing platforms".�"AFP