One of China’s e-commerce giants, JD.com has accused Alibaba of being anti-competitive.
In a letter to Chinese watchdog State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), JD.com wrote that Alibaba was abusing its power to restrict merchants from participating in promotions on other platforms during the Singles’ Day online shopping event.
According to reports, China’s post office expects Singles Day, an annual event, to generate 760 million packages.
JD also said that Alibaba has reportedly asked merchants to exclusively deal with just one e-commerce site and threatened punishments such as reduced traffic or lowered rankings.
According to an SAIC regulation, e-commerce sites cannot restrict merchants from participating in promotions on other platforms.
Alibaba has countered JD claim by saying that it provides better service to customers and merchants.
If Alibaba is found guilty, it could be fined under the country’s laws governing antitrust and unfair competition.
Alibaba has previously faced similar issues when SAIC published a "white paper" report on its website criticising the e-commerce site for not taking measures to reduce the sale of fake products on its website.
