China’s antitrust body fines academic database platform owner CNKI US$12.6 million for monopolistic practices

Name: Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity
Uploaded: 2022-12-27T03:09:40.000Z
Duration: 7 min 30 s
Description: Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity

Fine concluded a seven-month probe into the platform owner, which used its market dominance to impose excessive fee hikes

A cybersecurity review, initiated by another agency in June, is still pending

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The website of China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Photo: Getty Images

Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Published: 11:09am, 27 Dec 2022Updated: 5:56pm, 27 Dec 2022

China’s antitrust watchdog has slapped privately-owned China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) with a 87.6 million yuan (US$12.6 million) fine for monopolistic behaviour, while the nation’s biggest academic database owner awaits a cybersecurity review.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Monday announced a fine equivalent to 5 per cent of CNKI’s 2021 revenue of 1.75 billion yuan, after a seven-month investigation that found the private company abused its dominant position in the local market.

The CNKI platform, where the majority of Chinese scholars and students access academic papers, has imposed unreasonable price hikes on user subscriptions, SAMR said in a statement. The firm platform also forced publishers and educational institutions to work exclusively with it since 2014, violating antitrust laws, it added.

Zhang Gong, head of State Administration for Market Regulation. Photo: Handout

CNKI said it will “accept sincerely and obey resolutely” the penalty, and announced 15 rectification measures including ending exclusive agreements with universities and cutting its database subscription fees by 30 per cent in the next three years.

The fine put an end to the SAMR’s antitrust investigation launched in May. An investigation initiated by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in June is still ongoing, on the grounds that CNKI holds a large amount of personal information and important data covering areas that include national defence, telecommunications and finance.

The controversy of CNKI came under spotlight when the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the country’s top natural science research institution, said in April it would suspend its use of the country’s largest online academic database because of its hefty annual fees.

07:30

Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity

Before the CAC move, at least six Chinese universities had suspended use of CNKI because of substantial fee increases over the past decade, according to mainland media reports.

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