Alibaba in US$250 million settlement of lawsuit over regulatory meeting ahead of its 2014 IPO
- The proposed settlement has come ahead of Alibaba’s scheduled quarterly earnings report on May 15
Alibaba Group Holding, China’s largest e-commerce services provider, has agreed to pay US$250 million to settle a US lawsuit over the company’s failure to disclose that its executives met with Chinese regulators to discuss counterfeit goods sold on its largest retail platform, several months before the firm went public in 2014.
New York-traded Alibaba and its senior executives deny any wrongdoing in the settlement, which “does not constitute an admission or finding that the claims asserted has any merit”, according to the company’s filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
Alibaba, based in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
“We are glad to have this matter behind us,” said an Alibaba spokeswoman on Tuesday. “Prolonged litigation is neither conducive to protecting the interest of our shareholders, nor does it help Alibaba to focus on creating more value for society.”
Shares of Alibaba were unchanged at US$186.94 at the close of US trading on Monday. The company’s share price has been up about 36 per cent since the start of this year.