China fines Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu in latest antitrust investigation

ALIBABA Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and Baidu are among companies that have been ordered to pay a total of 21.5 million yuan (S$4.5 million) in fines by China's competition watchdog, the latest round of penalties in the nation's ongoing crackdown on monopolies.

The companies must pay 500,000 yuan for each of the 43 antitrust violations, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on Saturday (Nov 20).

President Xi Jinping declared his intention in March to go after "platform" companies that amass data to create monopolies and Beijing has been increasing antitrust oversight over China's sprawling private sector, especially in the digital realm.

Alibaba was slapped with a US$2.8 billion levy earlier this year for abusing its market dominance, while food-delivery leader Meituan was fined US$533 million last month for violating anti-monopoly regulations. BLOOMBERG