The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation fines ten tech giants for failure to notify economic concentrations under the applicable merger control rules (Alibaba / Tencent / Suning...)

China’s antitrust enforcer imposes record fines on tech giants for failure to notify their concentrations* On 12 March 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s competition authority responsible for the enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), has announced ten decisions imposing maximum fines for the failure to notify economic concentrations under the applicable merger control rules. The sanctions targeted China’s leading tech companies, which have been recently subjected to increased antitrust scrutiny. In 2018, Yintai Commercial (Group) Co., Ltd., a Cayman Islands corporation controlled by Alibaba Group acquired Kaiyuan Commercial Co., Ltd., a company based in Xi’an and engaged in department store retail business in Shaanxi province. In 2018, Tencent