The war between entrepreneur Jack Ma and the Chinese government has escalated further. As per the latest reports, the Chinese regulators have imposed a fine of 18.2 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) on Alibaba Group Holding.
Alibaba Accused Of Violating Anti-Monopoly Rules
The case of Jack Ma vs the Chinese government seems to be far from over. The Chinese government has imposed a hefty fine over Alibaba Group Holding. They have accused the conglomerate of violating the “anti-monopoly” regulations. This comes as an attempt to keep hold of the power of the internet conglomerates.
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Following this, the company released a statement after the new broke out. They said that they have accepted the penalties with sincerity and will follow the same. The Hangzhou-based company already said that Alibaba will continue to strive and serve its responsibility to the society.
They further assured to cooperate with the law and will continue to strengthen the compliance systems. They will continue to grow through innovation. As per a report released by South China Morning Post (owned by Alibaba), the fine imposed on Alibaba by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is more than the previous fine of 6.1 billion yuan. The previous one was paid by chip-maker Qualcomm.
SAMR Launched Antitrust Regulations Against Alibaba In December
In November last year, China proposed to sweep the antitrust regulations that targeted the tech industry. In the next month, SAMR launched an antitrust probe against Alibaba. They released a report and accused Alibaba for “abusing market dominance”since the year 2015. They claimed that Alibaba was forcing their merchants to sell only one of the two main e-commerce websites in China.
SAMR reported that Alibaba was taking away the free will of the merchants. In an opinion piece released on Saturday, People’s Daily claimed that imposing a fine does not mean that they are denying the role of internet platforms in economic and social development. And it doesn’t mean that the state will change their attitude to support the internet platforms.
The fine is only aimed to ensure a “healthy and continuous development of the country’s internet industry”.
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The Chinese government had also asked Jack Ma to dispose of their media assets. Currently, Alibaba’s holdings listed in public have a combined market worth of over $8 billion.
