China hits travel platform Trip.com with $765M in penalties over monopoly abuses

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BEIJING (AP) — China said on Saturday it had imposed penalties of nearly 5.2 billion yuan ($765 million) on Trip.com Group, which operates the country’s largest online travel platform, over claims of monopolistic conduct.

Trip.com, which runs Ctrip and Skyscanner among other brands, was said to be restricting market competition through means such as entering into exclusive partnerships with some hotels and offering prioritized traffic allocation to them, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement.

It prohibited some hotels from collaborating with competing platforms, the regulator added, and had also demanded some hotel operators who were operating on multiple platforms to ensure the rates for their platform were the lowest available online.

The regulator said Trip.com had been abusing its dominant market position in the sector since as early as 2020.

The regulator, which started its investigation against Trip.com in January, said it had confiscated “illegal gains” of more than 1.6 billion yuan ($245 million) from the group and had imposed a fine of over 3.5 billion yuan ($520 million).

The company was also asked to refund about 122 million yuan ($18 million) which it was withholding from hotel operators.

Trip.com’s behavior had “eliminated and restricted market competition, constrained hotel operators from conducting cross-platform business, infringed upon hotel operators’ right to set their own prices and harmed consumer interests,” the regulator’s statement said.

Trip.com acknowledged the decision in a statement Saturday, adding that it “sincerely accepts and will resolutely comply” with the penalties.

“(We will) systematically implement the rectification measures item-by-item and ensure their full execution,” the group said.