China hits travel giant Trip.com with $765 million penalty

Beijing: China's market regulator said Saturday it had fined and confiscated 5.18 billion yuan ($765 million) from the country's largest online travel provider Trip.com Group for violating monopoly laws.

Beijing has previously taken tough regulatory action on major internet companies over monopoly charges, notably launching an aggressive crackdown on tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba in late 2020.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) had opened an investigation in January into Trip.com Group for "suspected abuse of its dominant market position in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law".

The SAMR said on Saturday that it had determined that Trip.com had "abused its dominant market position", confiscating 1.66 billion yuan in illegal gains from the company and imposing a fine of 3.52 billion yuan.

Trip.com was found to have engaged in anticompetitive practices such as implementing "exclusive dealing arrangements" with hotels and forcing some operators to "forgo operations on other competing platforms".

"This conduct excluded or restricted competition in the relevant market, harmed the interests of hotel operators and consumers... (and) hindered the industry's regulated and healthy development," the SAMR statement said. 

Trip.com, which operates train, flight and hotel bookings within China and internationally, said in a statement on Saturday that it "sincerely accepts" the state regulator's findings. 

"We will use this penalty as an opportunity for deep reflection and self-transformation. We will resolutely abandon inefficient, cutthroat competition," the company said in a WeChat post.