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China fines Alibaba, Tencent for undeclared assets

November 20, 2021

Chinese officials ordered some of the country's biggest companies — including Alibaba, Tencent and Baiidu — to pay fines for failing to report corporate acquisitions over the past eight years.

https://p.dw.com/p/43IGX
The Alibaba Group sign with a security camera in Hangzhou
The Alibaba Group had already been ordered to pay billions in fines this yearImage: CHINATOPIX/AP/dpa/picture alliance

As part of a larger   anti-monopoly crackdown,  China fined tech giants, including Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, for not reporting 43 acquisitions over the past eight years.

The State Administration for Market Regulation said the companies "failed to declare illegal implementation of operating concentration." The acquisitions involved are assets in the areas of technology, medical technology and mapping.

Each violation carries a penalty of 500,000 yuan (€71,000/$80,000).

Other companies fined include e-tailers JD.com Inc. and Suning Ltd. and the search engine Baidu Inc.

CCP moves against tech giants

Since late 2020, China's ruling Communist Party has cracked down on tech monopolies and issues such as data security in an apparent clampdown on the country's lucrative tech sector.

The one-party state is concerned about the companies gaining too much power and has urged them not to use their dominance to gouge consumers or squeeze out upstarts.

Earlier this year, Alibaba, the world's largest e-commerce site by sales volume, was fined $2.8 billion (€2.5 billion) for practices that regulators said suppressed competition. Last month, food delivery platform Meituan was fined $534 million.

ar/dj (AP, Reuters)