Hey. It’s Brady again.
It’s another week, so there’s another new development in China’s anti-antitrust motions. This time, it’s in the travel bookings sector, featuring Trip.com, the country’s largest travel platform.
Trip.com was accused by another bookings portal, Zhoumo Jiudian (“Weekend Hotel”) of forcing hotels to abandon their listings on smaller rival sites and stay on Trip.com exclusively. Failure to comply would lead to choked traffic and stripped privileges.
Zhoumo Jiudian says this has been going on since March. If that is true, Trip.com is committing a cardinal sin—regulators are going after any major tech firm that exhibits monopolistic behaviors. Already, Alibaba and Meituan have been probed, with the former paying a record-setting USD 2.8 billion fine.
There’s more to the story. Check it out here.
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