China fines Trip.com $770 million over online hotel-booking monopoly

China’s market regulator said on Saturday it had fined and confiscated a total of 5.2 billion yuan ($770 million) from Trip.com Group for abusing its dominant position in the domestic online hotel-booking market.

Trip.com, China’s largest online travel platform, used ‌traffic-allocation mechanisms, ⁠platform ⁠rules and technical measures to strike exclusive deals with some hotels as it sought to offer the lowest prices, the regulator said.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) confiscated 1.66 billion yuan in illegal gains and imposed a fine of 3.52 billion yuan.