China fines Trip.com Group 5.2BN Yuan for hotel-booking monopoly

SAMR imposes 5.2 billion Yuan fine

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has fined Trip.com Group around 5.18 billion Yuan for abusing its dominant position in online hotel booking. 

Trip.com Group said it “sincerely accepts” the decision and will “fully comply”, according to a statement posted on WeChat. 

The penalty, worth about €670 million, follows a months‑long antitrust investigation.

The SAMR decision breaks down the amount into a 3.521 billion Yuan fine - equal to 7.5% of Trip.com’s 2025 domestic sales - and the confiscation of 1.658 billion yuan in illegal gains, according to the South China Morning Post. The group’s domestic brand Ctrip - known as Trip.com everywhere else in the world outside of China - must also reimburse in full 122 million Yuan of reserve funds that the regulator said had been extracted from hoteliers under pressure.

Regulators accused Trip.com Group of using, since 2020, traffic‑allocation mechanisms, platform rules and technical measures to secure exclusive agreements with certain hotels and to maintain preferential price conditions. 

The authority said the company leveraged its market scale to restrict hotels’ commercial freedom by pushing them to distribute exclusively via its platform. It also said some operators were compelled to offer the network’s lowest prices: “Ctrip lowered prices using technical tools such as the Price Adjustment Assistant and the Listing Assistant, as well as through manual methods,” reported the People’s Daily.

Trip.com Group, parent of Ctrip, Skyscanner and Qunar, and a central player in the global travel distribution ecosystem, said it accepts the ruling and listed 19 measures to prevent a repeat of such practices. These measures aim to end exclusive partnerships that distort competition, stop forcing operators to match the lowest price, protect the legitimate rights and interests of hotel operators and safeguard consumers’ rights.

The antitrust investigation began in January 2026 and had already prompted a class action by US shareholders, who argued the Trip.com Group should have disclosed its use of an algorithmic tool to keep partner prices at the lowest level.

The ruling underscores how the technological and commercial power of a platform can become a risk factor when allocation, ranking or price‑adjustment tools are seen to impede a fair market. As giants invest in user‑experience improvements and algorithmic optimisation, authorities are likely to tighten oversight of market‑shaping mechanisms.