Community group buying: Chinese regulators fine businesses tied to Big Tech for price dumping

The State Administration for Market Regulation accuses tech giants involved in community group buying of price dumping in a bid to dominate the market. The latest crackdown on Big Tech comes ahead of Beijing’s key political meeting known as the ‘two sessions’. — SCMP

China’s market regulator has fined some of the country’s largest tech players involved in a fast-growing e-commerce model for slashing prices to edge out competitors, in Beijing’s latest move to rein in China’s Big Tech.

Alibaba Group Holding-backed startup Nice Tuan and the community group buying units under e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and online delivery company Meituan were each fined 1.5mil yuan (RM940,227) for breaching the country’s price law, while a startup backed by Tencent Holdings, Shixianghui, was fined 500,000 yuan (RM313,292), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement on Wednesday. (Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.)