JD.com wins antitrust lawsuit against Alibaba

Chinese online retailer JD.com said on Friday it won a lawsuit against rival Alibaba, which was fined 1 billion yuan ($140.68 million) for monopolistic practices.

The Beijing High People’s Court ruled that Alibaba Group Holding Limited together with Zhejiang Tmall Network Co and Zhejiang Tmall Technology Co had abused their dominance in the market and adopted monopolistic practices known as “picking one between two”, causing serious damage to JD. com, JD.com said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account.

JD.com said it has nothing further to add beyond the statement.

“This ruling is not only a fair decision for JD’s resistance against the ‘choose one between two’ monopoly, but a historic moment in the defense of market justice and competitive order through the rule of law” , says the statement. “It will be a significant moment in China’s antitrust legal process.”

An Alibaba spokesperson told Reuters they were aware of the ruling and “respect the court’s decision.”

Alibaba was fined a record $2.75 billion in an antitrust investigation by Chinese regulators in 2021 that claimed it had abused its market dominance.

The two e-commerce giants in China had criticized each other for a practice called choosing one between two, citing brands and merchants who had allegedly been told that if they wanted to trade on their platform, they had to do so exclusively.