SHANGHAI: China’s e-commerce giant, Ali­baba Group, has been fined 800,000 yuan ($129,000) by the price bureau in eastern Zhe­jiang province for violations by third-party sellers during promotions on its e-commerce platforms.

Since Alibaba turned “Singles’ Day”, a Novem­ber 11 Chinese response to Valentine’s Day, into an online shopping festival in 2009, the event has grown to similar proportions as Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States.

“The company has been fined 500,000 yuan ($81,000) for matters related to Singles’ Day pricing by third-party sellers on our Tmall marketplace in 2013 and 2014 and 300,000 yuan ($48,000) for pricing in other promotions in 2013 and 2015,” Alibaba Group said in a statement on Friday.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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