Chinese Trust Busters Impose $3.53 Billion of Penalties in 2021

Chinese trust busters emphatically brought the hammer down on anti-competitive business practices last year, probing 60% more cases than in 2020 and imposing a 50-fold increase in penalties, according to the 2021 report of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on antitrust enforcement.

The report showed the full dimensions of the government’s broad crackdown on big Chinese tech companies’ monopolistic behavior. Internet and platform companies were the focus of the regulatory assault. Fines imposed on such companies in 2021 reached 21.74 billion yuan ($3.26 billion), accounting for 92.1% of the total antitrust penalties of 23.6 billion yuan ($3.53 billion).