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Miguel Cordon · · 1 min readChina fines edtech firms backed by Alibaba, Tencent for anti-competition violations
“China is expanding its far-reaching tech campaign into online education, issuing the maximum penalties to two of the country’s fastest-growing tutoring apps for violating competition and pricing laws,” Bloomberg reported.
Details:
- Tencent-backed Yuanfudao and Alibaba-backed Zuoyebang have each been fined 2.5 million yuan (almost US$390,000) by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).
- The fines were handed out after the regulator claimed that both Yuanfudao and Zuoyebang faked teacher qualifications and used bogus user reviews. The edtech firms said they accept the penalty and will address the issues brought up by SAMR.
Context:
- A China Securities analyst told Bloomberg that the actions against Yuanfudao and Zuoyebang are part of an ongoing clampdown on after-school tutoring services for illegal activities.
- The development followed similar fines against private education providers such as GSX Techedu and TAL Education Group unit for pricing-related breaches.
Editing by Collin Furtado
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