China’s antitrust watchdog opened a probe into travel giant Trip.com, part of Beijing’s campaign to stamp out aggressive competition that drives down prices.
The investigation is a “warning shot” to businesses accused of abusing their strong market positions, Trivium China analysts wrote. Trip.com, whose shares plummeted Thursday, has fielded allegations of lowering hotel prices to undercut rivals; China’s food delivery platforms that waged a race-to-the-bottom price war are facing similar scrutiny.
The probes don’t signal a return to the era of tech crackdowns that shook investor confidence five years ago, a Reuters columnist noted, partly because they’re not driven by founders falling out of grace with Beijing. “That makes China’s antitrust regime more predictable.”
