Chinese regulators are continuing to dole out huge fines. On Friday, China's powerful antitrust regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation, announced a massive fine on delivery giant Meituan: 3.4 billion RMB, or about $527.4 million, according to Reuters.
The fine comes after SAMR scrutinized Meituan's practice of requiring vendors to sell exclusively on its platform for legal violations, a process that started in April. The resulting penalty is one of several mega-fines issued by Chinese regulators in 2021 as part of an effort to curb anticompetitive practices including the exclusive partnership agreements Meituan used to create vendor lock-in.
Meituan will also have to return over 1 billion RMB to jilted merchants. For their part, investors don't seem too worried; Meituan shares rose over 2 percent at the close of Friday trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, suggesting the expectation of a large fine had previously been priced into the stock.