#China’s Planning to Fine #Meituan, 3rd most valuable listed co, for oAbout $1BN

SINGAPORE—China's antitrust regulator is preparing to impose a roughly $1 billion fine on food-delivery giant Meituan for allegedly abusing its dominant market position to the detriment of merchants and rivals, according to people familiar with the matter.

The penalty could be announced in the coming weeks, and Meituan would be required to revamp its operations and end a practice that has been dubbed "er xuan yi"—literally, "choose one out of two," the people said. Such exclusivity arrangements have forced many small businesses to pick sides in China's competitive retail industry.

Meituan, with a mar­ket cap­i­tal­iza­tion of about $170 bil­lion, has raised bil­lions of dol­lars from global in­vestors and is Chi­na's third-most valu­able pub­licly listed in­ter­net com­pany af­ter Ten­cent Hold­ings Ltd. and Al­ibaba Group Hold­ing Ltd. The Bei­jing-head­quar­tered firm op­er­ates an on­line mar­ket­place for mil­lions of restau­rants and other mer-chants, and is the big­gest provider of food-de­liv­ery and re­lated ser­vices in China. It also of­fers ho­tel book­ings and sells gro­ceries on­line.

See the whole article on the WSJ here: 

China's Antitrust Regulator Planning to Fine Meituan About $1 Billion

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