Report: China Eyes Record Monopoly Fine Near $1 bn for Alibaba

The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song
The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song
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Report: China Eyes Record Monopoly Fine Near $1 bn for Alibaba

The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song
The logo of Alibaba Group is seen inside the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province early November 11, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song

China is considering imposing a record fine of nearly $1 billion on e-commerce giant Alibaba for allegedly flouting monopoly rules, according to a report, as authorities continue to put the screws on the firm as part of a crackdown on the technology sector.

The penalty could top the $975 million paid by US chipmaker Qualcomm in 2015 -- the biggest known for anticompetitive practices in China -- the Wall Street Journal report said, citing unnamed "people with knowledge of the matter".

Antitrust regulators in charge of Alibaba's case did not immediately respond to AFP queries on the report, which was published by the Journal late Thursday.

The company, China's largest online shopping portal, has been in the crosshairs of authorities in recent months over concerns of its reach into the daily finances of ordinary Chinese people.

But its legal troubles began after comments in October last year by billionaire founder Jack Ma in which he laid into China's convoluted regulatory system.

In November, financial regulators pulled the plug on the record $35 billion Hong Kong-Shanghai initial public offering of Alibaba's online payment subsidiary Ant Group.

A month later, officials opened an investigation into Alibaba's business practices, deemed anti-competitive, and Ma disappeared from public view until mid-January.

The company based in the eastern city of Hangzhou said it was "fully cooperating" with the investigation by the State Administration for Market Regulation last month.

Regulators are also investigating whether the conglomerate should divest assets unrelated to its main online retail business, the Journal reported without offering details.

An Alibaba spokesperson declined to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

The company has come under fire in the past for allegedly forbidding its merchants from listing on rival e-commerce platforms.

Once finalized, measures against Alibaba will need to be approved by China's top leadership.

The squeeze on one of China's most influential companies is the latest sign that the leadership is ready to deflate the ambitions of big tech firms in a runaway internet sector.



Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
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Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Microsoft said Friday it is making sure that personnel based in China are not providing technical support for US Defense Department systems, after investigative news site ProPublica revealed the practice earlier this week.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed that work on Defense Department cloud services had been outsourced to people in China, insisting that the country will not have "any involvement whatsoever" with the department's systems going forward.

"Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services," the company's chief communications officer, Frank Shaw, said in a post on X.

ProPublica reported Tuesday that the tech giant was using engineers based in China -- Washington's primary military rival -- to maintain Pentagon computer systems, with only limited supervision by US personnel who often lacked the necessary expertise to do the job effectively.

US Senator Tom Cotton asked Hegseth to look into the matter in a letter dated Thursday, and the Pentagon chief responded that he would do so.

Hegseth then posted a video on X Friday evening in which he said "it turns out that some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services. This is obviously unacceptable, especially in today's digital threat environment."

"At my direction, the department will... initiate -- as fast as we can -- a two-week review, or faster, to make sure that what we uncovered isn't happening anywhere else across the DoD," AFP quoted him as saying.

"We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to our military infrastructure and online networks," he added, thanking "all those Americans out there in the media and elsewhere who raised this issue to our attention so we could address it."