Alibaba has been fined 18.2 billion yuan by the Chinese competition authorities, or more than 2 billion GBP. It is reported by the South China Morning Post on Saturday. The newspaper, owned by Alibaba by the way, writes that the Chinese government uses competition rules to regulate the big Chinese tech companies.

The fine, which is equivalent to 4 percent of sales in 2019, follows a month-long investigation that started around Christmas. The regulator could impose a fine between 1 and 10 percent of annual turnover.

According to the State Administration of Market Supervision, Alibaba abused its dominant market position in online retail since 2015.