JD.com has won a lawsuit against rival Alibaba Group in the High People’s Court of Beijing, which fined Alibaba 1 billion yuan ($140 million) for engaging in monopolistic practices. JD.com had sued Alibaba and its ecommerce divisions, Zhejiang Tmall Network and Zhejiang Tmall Technology, for practicing “choosing one of two” behaviors — essentially saying to suppliers that if they sold to JD.com, they would not be allowed to sell on Alibaba.
“This judgment is not only a fair ruling for JD.com to resist the ‘choose-one’ monopoly behavior, but also a landmark moment for the rule of law to maintain the order of fair competition in the market,” according to a JD.com statement. “It will also be a highlight in the process of China’s anti-monopoly rule of law.”
Fellow China-based ecommerce apps Temu and Shein are currently embroiled in a similar dispute, with Temu accusing Shein of using “mafia-style tactics” to coerce sellers into exclusive relationships with Shein. Unlike the JD.com lawsuit, however, Temu’s case against Shein will play out in U.S. courts.
In 2021, Alibaba was fined a record $2.75 billion by Chinese regulators that said the company had abused its market dominance, according to Reuters. Alibaba’s fintech firm Ant Group was fined approximately $982 million in July 2023 for violating consumer protection and corporate governance regulations.
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Alibaba has been making major changes to its corporate infrastructure and leadership, including its December 2023 decision to add the responsibility for its ecommerce companies to the portfolio of Eddie Wu, who already has charge of the company’s cloud unit. The company nixed plans to spin off the cloud unit in November 2023 after reorganizing itself into six distinct businesses in March 2023, presumably to simplify the process of spinning them off if conditions warranted.
