Beijing regulators have summoned 12 major online platforms, including Trip.com, JD.com, Meituan, Qunar and Amap, and ordered them to correct practices that authorities said harmed merchants and misled consumers, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The move comes as China tightens oversight of the platform economy following the February 13 release of new antitrust compliance guidelines for internet platforms, part of a broader push to place competition on a more rules-based footing. Within that framework, regulators have increasingly targeted what policymakers describe as "involution" competition, or aggressive, self-defeating rivalry that squeezes merchants and erodes margins.
According to a March 23 statement from Beijing's market regulator and two other city agencies, the problems included forced promotions, pricing interference, misleading marketing and weak compliance controls.
Trip.com was among the platforms singled out. Regulators said it had used automatic price-matching tools and related rules that interfered with hotels' pricing decisions, including by requiring the lowest prices across channels. In some cases, the platform was also said to have treated offline extensions or bookings shifted to other channels as transactions it had generated, while still charging hotels full commissions.
Authorities also cited Taobao's flash-sale service, saying some merchants had been placed into promotions they could not exit. In one example, a restaurant received as little as 2.58 yuan and 3.31 yuan after discounts for meal sets originally priced at 19.8 yuan and 21 yuan, underscoring regulators’ concerns that some promotional tactics can push merchants below cost.
Other cases extended beyond pricing. Regulators said third-party train-ticket platforms used misleading claims to sell paid "acceleration" and priority-booking services built around free functions on the official railway booking platform. Trip.com was also told to remove a thumbs-up badge that regulators said could mislead users about hotel quality, while Amap was ordered to correct outdated subsidy labels.
The authorities said they would continue publicly disclosing violations, monitor compliance and take tougher action against repeat offenders.
