China Fines Alibaba, PDD for Food Delivery Business Failures

Chinese regulators fined leading food delivery platforms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., PDD Holdings Inc. and Meituan for failing to filter out unqualified merchants.

The State Administration for Market Regulation took a total of 3.6 billion yuan ($528 million) from several platforms, which also included JD.com Inc. and ByteDance Ltd.’s Douyin, via fines and confiscation of income generated through improper use, according to a statement from the market watchdog on Friday. The penalty was the largest ever for delivery platforms since China’s food safety law was amended in 2015, according to the official Xinhua news agency.