Chinese market regulator has opened a case against China's online service super-app Meituan for alleged monopolistic practices including "forced exclusivity".
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced the news in a one-sentence announcement on its website on Monday.
Meituan then said that it has been notified by SAMR and will actively cooperate with the regulator's investigation to further improve its business compliance management.
Meituan will protect the legitimate rights and interests of users and all parties, promote the long-term healthy development of the industry, and effectively fulfill its social responsibility, it said.
At present, the company's businesses are running normally, Meituan said.
Meituan became the latest Chinese tech giant to be investigated for forced exclusivity.
Earlier this month, the SAMR announced that it had fined e-commerce giant Alibaba 18.228 billion yuan, or 4% of its 2019 China sales of 455.712 billion yuan, following the conclusion of an investigation into the company.
In December 2020, the SAMR opened an investigation into Alibaba's abuse of dominant market position in the market for e-tailing platform services within China.
Alibaba was found to have a dominant position in the market for e-tailing platform services within China. Since 2015, Alibaba has abused this dominant position by imposing "forced exclusivity" requirements on platform merchants, prohibiting them from opening stores or participating in promotions on other competing platforms, the SAMR's announcement said.
