Alibaba Group’s signage is seen during the company’s 11.11 Singles’ Day shopping festival at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, November 11, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
BEIJING – Alibaba shares fell after US markets closed on Wednesday as reports emerged that the Chinese government was conducting an antitrust investigation into the technology giant.
CNBC has not yet confirmed the reports, which were made by Bloomberg and the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The news comes at the expense of a growing – and largely unexpected – push by the Chinese authorities to control their largest technology companies through regulatory action.
China’s state administration for market regulation has opened an investigation into Alibaba’s monopolistic practices, Xinhua said on Thursday. The main issue the report called for was a practice that forces traders to choose one of the two platforms, rather than being able to work with both.
Alibaba’s New York traded shares fell more than 3% on trading after the program.
Separately, Alibaba-affiliated Ant announced that it had received notification from regulators on Thursday of a meeting. Last month, regulators abruptly suspended the financial technology giant’s initial public offering just days before the planned listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
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