Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has announced that its antitrust lawsuit against its competitor Alibaba has been settled in its favor. He The Beijing Supreme People's Court has ruled that Tmalla platform that belongs to the Alibaba Group, They were created through monopolistic practices and therefore had to pay around 140 million dollars (126.52 million euros) to JD.com to repair the damage caused to the market.
According to JD.com, the Tmall marketplace had forced sellers to choose between one platform or the other to sell their products. A rule that has also caused a lot of controversy and discomfort among brands and retailers. With this sentence they assume that it is “a historic moment to defend market justice and competition through the rule of law“explained JD.com. The company founded by Jack Ma has announced that it respects the decision of the Beijing Supreme People's Court.
«Monopolistic behavior such as “choosing one between two” not only restricts competition in the market and harms the legitimate rights and interests of brands, retailers and consumers, but also weakens innovation and the vitality of market development… This ruling has greatly encouraged JD.com to always adhere to the business belief of integrity and success» says JD.com in the closing statement.
The lawsuit against Alibaba began in 2017 and so far JD.com has not received a response from the court.
These events are embedded in a context in which JD.com continued its financial growth, reporting revenue of CNY 778.585 million (€99.40 million). in the last nine months. This milestone represented a year-over-year increase, while JD Retail's operating margin remained steady at 5.2% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
Alibaba is again accused of antitrust law
In 2021, Alibaba Group faced another antitrust lawsuit following an investigation by the Chinese government. After an investigation, the government concluded Alibaba blocked merchants from selling their products on other platforms. The fine in 2021 was 18.2 billion yuan (about $2.8 billion), an amount equivalent to that 4% of Alibaba's domestic annual sales.
This was the largest fine imposed on a technology company in China since the government began tightening controls on companies' operations in the country.