BEIJING, April 30 (TMTPOST)— China’s top market regulator is mulling a penalty at least RMB10 billion (US$1.54 billion) for the domestic tech giant Tencent, as part of Beijing’s antitrust crackdown efforts, Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter on Friday.
According to the sources, Tencent will be punished for not just failing to seek acquisitions and investments' regulatory approval prior to seal the deal, but unfair competition practices in some of businesses, especially in music streaming.
Tencent and the regulator China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) didn’t responded to the report.
Notably, SAMR that day later announced it fined Tencent RMB1 million in total, for its two previous equity acquisitions have violated provisions regarding concentration of business operators under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law.