China Continues Big Tech Regulation... 600 Billion KRW Fine Imposed on 'Meituan'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] As the Chinese government continues to regulate platform companies, this time it has imposed a fine of about 600 billion KRW on the online food delivery platform 'Meituan' for antitrust violations.

On the 8th, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) of China announced on its website that it decided to impose a fine of 3.442 billion yuan (about 638.1 billion KRW) on Meituan.

This amount corresponds to 3% of Meituan's domestic revenue in China last year.

The authorities judged that since 2018, Meituan has abused its dominant market position by forcing merchants on its platform to choose exclusively between Meituan and competing platforms, effectively imposing a 'choose one' policy.

Furthermore, the authorities ordered Meituan to fully refund the 1.289 billion yuan (about 238.9 billion KRW) of 'exclusive cooperation deposits' collected from merchants to guarantee this 'choose one' policy, and issued administrative guidance to protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized food service businesses and delivery workers.

In April, Chinese authorities also imposed the highest fine in the history of the country's antitrust law, 18.228 billion yuan (about 3.3 trillion KRW), on Alibaba for similar 'choose one' issues.

Meituan stated, "We sincerely accept the authorities' decision and will firmly implement it," pledging to eradicate the 'choose one' problem.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.