What’s new: China’s top market regulator last year slapped 23.6 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in fines on companies that violated the country’s law against monopolies, a total that dwarves the previous year’s total by more than fiftyfold, an official announcement shows.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) stepped up supervision over internet platforms, health care, public utilities and the construction material industry, according to the agency’s announcement on Sunday.
In some of the 176 cases that resulted in the fines, internet platform operators forced vendors to choose between them and their rival platforms, according to the SAMR announcement.
The SAMR also stopped a merger involving leading video game streaming platforms, and put an end to the practice of owning exclusive music copyrights, the regulator said.
The background: China has ramped up its crackdown on tech firms’ monopolistic behavior last year as part of broader policy to defuse economic risks.
The SAMR didn’t identify the companies involved in the cases, but the descriptions point to internet giants including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Alibaba was fined 18.2 billion yuan in April 2021 for violating the antitrust law. Later that year, Tencent was forced to relinquish all its exclusive global music licensing deals for anti-competitive practices, and two livestreaming companies backed by Tencent, Huya and Douyu, were forbidden from merging.
Contact reporter Zhang Yukun (yukunzhang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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