China has opened an antitrust investigation into Trip.com Group, the country’s largest online travel services provider, weeks before hundreds of millions of people on the mainland go away on holiday during the Lunar New Year break.
The investigation was launched after a preliminary inquiry into the firm’s operations, according to the SAMR.
In a social media post, Trip.com said it would “actively cooperate with the regulator’s investigation, fully implement regulatory requirements and work with all industry stakeholders to build a sustainable market environment”. It added that all of its operations were proceeding normally.
The Trip.com case reflected how China’s regulatory inquiry of various online platforms has become the norm.
The State Council, for example, last week announced a market competition inquiry and assessment of China’s food delivery platforms, without identifying which operators were targeted.
These regulatory initiatives showed that “antitrust enforcement could become normalised”, said Li Chengdong, founder and chief analyst at Beijing-based e-commerce consultancy Dolphin.
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