China’s market regulator on Thursday announced an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, the country’s biggest tech company, a month after authorities halted sister company Ant’s $37bn initial public offering.
The investigation is one of the first of its kind into a large Chinese tech company and comes as authorities are subjecting Alibaba’s ecommerce and fintech activities to an unprecedented amount of scrutiny.
The market regulator said it was investigating suspected monopolistic practices, including Alibaba’s tactic of forcing merchants to sell exclusively on its platform, a practice known as “pick one of two” in China, among other issues.
The brief statement from China’s State Administration of Market Regulation said the investigation into Alibaba had been opened recently after complaints. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell more than 8 per cent in early trading.
Alibaba said it “will actively co-operate with the regulators on the…