Chinese market regulators announced Saturday that they have fined and seized a combined 5.2 billion yuan — roughly $770 million — from Trip.com Group, penalizing the company for abusing its dominant position in China’s online hotel-booking industry.
Trip.com, which holds the top spot among online travel platforms in China, used traffic-control systems, platform rules, and technical tools to lock certain hotels into exclusive arrangements, all in an effort to guarantee the lowest available prices, according to regulators.
The State Administration for Market Regulation said it seized 1.66 billion yuan in profits the company gained through illegal means and levied an additional fine of 3.52 billion yuan.
Beyond the monetary penalties, regulators ordered Trip.com to return 122 million yuan in booking deposits that the agency said the company had wrongfully held back from hotel operators.
The agency stated that Trip.com’s business practices damaged both competition and consumers by preventing hotels from freely operating across multiple platforms and from setting their own room rates.
China’s antitrust probe into Trip.com began in January, sparked by complaints that the platform had imposed one-sided terms on hotels and manipulated pricing through technical means.
The penalty is part of a wider push by Beijing to rein in unfair competition among internet companies and put a stop to aggressive price wars that authorities say have damaged businesses and contributed to deflationary pressure in the economy.
