The State Administration for Market Regulation issued an administrative penalty for Trip.com’s abuse of its dominant market position, with total fines and confiscations amounting to 5.18B yuan.

PANews July 25 news, according to CCTV News, the State Administration for Market Regulation, in accordance with law, issued an administrative penalty against Trip.com Group Co., Ltd. (“Trip.com”) for monopolistic conduct involving abuse of its dominant market position, with total fines and confiscation amounting to RMB 5.18B. After investigation, since 2020, Trip.com has abused its dominant position in the online hotel reservation platform services market within China. Using a traffic allocation mechanism at its core, and leveraging platform rules and technical means, it carried out two types of monopolistic conduct:

First, it required “special brand” hotel operators to carry out exclusive cooperation. As an incentive—such as granting the most traffic inclines and benefits support—it induced hotel operators with high transaction volumes, good service quality, and strong user attraction to choose “special brand,” and required them not to cooperate with competing platforms.

Second, it forced “gold” and “no license” hotel operators to provide the “lowest price across the whole network.” It required hotel operators operating across platforms to have the lowest price on Trip.com, and allowed them to directly adjust pricing. If Trip.com discovered that a hotel’s price was higher than that on competing platforms, it would reduce the price through technical tools and manual measures such as “price adjustment assistant” and “listing pass.” At the same time, Trip.com used technical means to monitor the implementation of exclusive cooperation and the “lowest price across the whole network,” and ensured the implementation of such conduct through punitive measures including restricting traffic, “removing the listing,” and deducting order reserve funds.

Pursuant to Articles 57 and 59 of the Anti-Monopoly Law, the State Administration for Market Regulation, taking into comprehensive consideration factors such as the nature, degree, and duration of Trip.com’s monopolistic conduct, made the following administrative penalty decision in accordance with law: ordering Trip.com to stop the illegal conduct; refunding in full the order reserve funds of RMB 122 million that were forcibly deducted from hotel operators; confiscating RMB 1.66B in illegal gains; and imposing a fine of 7.5% of its 2025 sales revenue within China, amounting to RMB 46.96B.

Trip.com issued an announcement in response, saying it sincerely accepts and firmly complies, and will strictly follow regulatory requirements,推进 each item and systematically implement all rectification work to ensure all measures are carried out effectively. Trip.com will publicly release specific rectification measures to the public, actively accept oversight from all sectors of society, and ensure that all rectification efforts achieve tangible results.