China slaps antitrust fines of up to $ 78,700 on big tech

China’s market regulator announced today a new round of antitrust fines against large technology companies such as Tencent and Alibaba as part of the regulatory campaign that Beijing has launched in the sector for more than a year.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) imposed penalties of up to 500,000 yuan (US $ 78,700, 69,700 euros), the maximum established by the antitrust law of 2008, for each of the companies involved in a total of 13 agreements of acquisition or creation of joint ventures that were not properly communicated to the relevant authorities.

Of these fines, up to nine are for Tencent, developer of the popular social network WeChat and one of the main digital companies in the country.

Two others are for e-commerce giant Alibaba; another, for the latter’s rival JD.com, and another, for the Bilibili video broadcasting platform.

Although the Chinese government’s regulatory campaign has extended to sectors such as education or transportation, it has especially affected technology companies such as the aforementioned Alibaba, the ‘Chinese Uber’ Didi or the digital services giant Meituan, which has the backing from Tencent.

In April, Alibaba received the largest antitrust sanction in China’s history – equivalent to about US $ 2.8 billion – while in October it was Meituan’s turn, although in his case the penalty was less than expected, of about US $ 533 million.

And, in the case of Didi, the company announced that it will withdraw from Wall Street just half a year after its debut before the cybersecurity investigation that the authorities opened – which, according to some information, would have opposed the IPO – in against it, which is still active and which resulted in the temporary ban on the downloads of its applications and the registration of new users in China.

EFE