China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on July 25 issued a major anti-monopoly administrative penalty against Ctrip, a leading Chinese tourism booking platform, with combined fines and confiscated illegal gains hitting 5.179 billion yuan (US$739.9m).
Based on China's Anti-Monopoly Law, the fine includes confiscated unlawful earnings of 1.658 billion yuan (US$236.9m) and an additional fine of 3.521 billion yuan (US$503m). Authorities also ordered the tourism platform to return 122 million yuan (US$17.4m) of compulsory order deposits to hotel operators. The penalty equals 7.5 percent of Ctrip's domestic sales revenue in 2025.
The SAMR said that Ctrip abused its dominant standing in the domestic online accommodation booking market by forcing some providers to enter into exclusive deals with it and forcing some hotels to give it the lowest prices among competing platforms. Those practices have broken fair market competition, hurt hotel operators and consumers' rights and interest, and obstructed the healthy development of the industry.
Ctrip stated that it would accept the verdict and carry out comprehensive public rectification.
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