Beijing (PingWest)—After Alibaba was fined for monopolizing the e-commerce market, China's top market regulator launched an antitrust investigation against food delivery giant Meituan.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement on Monday that its investigation focused on the company's practice of forcing suppliers to exclusively use its platform, that is, "choose one from two".
Meituan said in a statement that it will cooperate with the investigation and its business is operating normally. The Tencent-backed company raised $10 billion through the issuance of stocks and convertible bonds last week.
Considering that some Internet giants limited fair competition by abusing their dominant market positions, China has taken some measures to curb the disorderly expansion of them.
This month, SAMR imposed a record $2.75 billion fine on e-commerce giant Alibaba over the same practice and summoned 34 internet firms including Meituan to tell them to learn from Alibaba's penalty and not use banned practices.
In March, Meituan was among five backers or owners of community group-buying platforms fined by SAMR over "improper pricing behavior" related to subsidies.