Trip.com Group Photo: VCG

　　China"s top market regulator on Saturday fined online travel agency Trip.com Group 3.521 billion yuan ($519.93 million) and confiscated 1.658 billion yuan in illegal gains from its monopolistic practices by abusing its dominant market position, also ordering it to refund 122 million yuan in deposits deducted from hotels.

　　The investigation and punishment of the Trip.com monopoly case is another major landmark case in the normalized antitrust regulation of the platform economy, with breakthrough significance in many fields, according to a report by the People"s Daily on Saturday.

　　Trip.com said in a statement the same day that it sincerely accepts and will firmly comply with the administrative penalty decision, and will strictly follow regulatory requirements, advancing rectification item by item and implementing it systematically to ensure that all measures are carried out in full.

　　The investigation found that since 2020, Trip.com has abused its dominance in China"s market for online hotel booking platform services. With its traffic allocation mechanism as the central lever, the company used platform rules and technical means to carry out two types of monopolistic conduct, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said.

　　Trip.com used preferential traffic and benefit support as incentives to induce high-quality hotels into exclusive "special-tier" partnerships, while barring them from cooperating with rival platforms.