JD.com, Meituan and ByteDance among the first to pledge antitrust compliance after being told by Beijing to learn a lesson from Alibaba
- The statements strictly toed the line from Tuesday’s meeting co-hosted by the antitrust watchdog, cyberspace administration, and taxation authority
- ByteDance, the owner of short video app TikTok and Douyin, made 13 promises in its public statement
JD.com, Meituan and ByteDance led the first group of Chinese Big Tech companies to pledge compliance with the law, a day after regulators told them to “learn a lesson” from Alibaba Group Holding in Beijing’s latest antitrust crackdown.
On Wednesday, 12 of the 34 tech companies lectured by authorities on Tuesday had issued public statements disclosing their commitment to do business in compliance with laws, after being told to take note of Alibaba’s recent antitrust punishment and to conduct self-inspections in the coming month.
The remainder of the companies are expected to publish their public commitments in the coming two days.
In all cases, the public statements strictly toed the line from Tuesday’s meeting which was co-hosted by China’s antitrust watchdog the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), the country’s cyberspace administration, and its taxation authority.
JD.com, for instance, made eight promises that included “never implementing measures to force merchants to pick one from two [and] never abusing dominant market position or implementing any monopoly deals”. The e-commerce giant also said it would “never publish illegal advertisements [and] never sell products with substandard quality”.