Time.news – The Chinese authorities have sanctioned the e-commerce giant Alibaba with a maxi-fine of 18.2 billion yuan (2.78 billion dollars) for abuse of dominant position. The colossus founded by Jack Ma announced that it accepted the sanction and pledged to outline plans on Monday to bring its operations into compliance.
The penalty, which is equivalent to approx 4% of the company’s revenues in 2019, is the largest ever imposed by the antitrust authority in China and comes within the framework of a tight control initiated in recent months on the hi-tech giants.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (Samr)China’s antitrust authority explained in a statement that an investigation launched in December found that Alibaba has “abused its market dominance” since 2015.
Alibaba, along with Tencent, is one of the Chinese e-commerce giants in the sights of the authorities of Beijing, a squeeze that was also linked to the criticisms launched last October by its founder, the tycoon Jack Ma, against the country’s financial control system.
In December, Samr announced the opening of an antitrust investigation into the company and in the same month it suspended the $ 37 billion maxi-IPO of Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech subsidiary.
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