China's market regulator fines 12 companies for 'illegal monopolistic behavior'

KEY POINTS

• China's market regulator said on Friday it has fined 12 companies related to 10 deals that demonstrated illegal monopolistic behavior.
• The State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on Friday that the companies include Baidu Inc, Tencent Holdings, Didi Chuxing, SoftBank and a ByteDance-backed firm.
• Companies were fined 500,000 yuan ($77,000) each, according to the statement.

A security personnel stands guard at the opening session of Baidu's annual AI developers conference Baidu Create 2019 in Beijing, China, July 3, 2019.

Jason Lee | Reuters

China's market regulator said on Friday it has fined 12 companies related to 10 deals that demonstrated illegal monopolistic behavior.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement on Friday that the companies include Baidu Inc, Tencent Holdings, Didi Chuxing, SoftBank and a ByteDance-backed firm.

Companies were fined 500,000 yuan ($77,000) each, according to the statement.

Tencent said in a statement it would actively rectify operations and report timely to the regulator in future cases.

Baidu, ByteDance, Didi and SoftBank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

China has stepped up its scrutiny of the country's internet giants in recent months and has in particular cited concerns over monopolistic behavior and potential infringements of consumer rights.

The SAMR has fined Alibaba, Tencent-backed China Literature and other firms for not reporting deals properly for anti-trust reviews. The agency also fined an auto-related deal yesterday.