China steps up pressure on Alibaba with anti-monopoly probe

Chinese regulators on Thursday announced an anti-monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, stepping up official efforts to tighten control over Chinas fast-growing tech industries. The market regulator said it was looking into Alibabas policy of choose one of two, which requires its business partners to avoid dealing with competitors.

Chinese regulators on Thursday announced an anti-monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, stepping up official efforts to tighten control over China's fast-growing tech industries. The market regulator said it was looking into Alibaba's policy of “choose one of two,” which requires its business partners to avoid dealing with competitors. The one-sentence statement gave no details of possible penalties or a timeline to announce a result.

Chinese leaders said earlier an economic priority in the coming year will be to step up anti-monopoly enforcement. Regulators earlier forced the suspension of the stock market debut of Ant Group, an online finance platform spun off from Alibaba.

Alibaba Group is the world's biggest e-commerce company by total sales volume..