Alibaba stock rises as Beijing concludes three-year probe over monopolistic practices

China’s antitrust watchdog has ended a three-year regulatory “rectification” process of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and praised the internet giant for its compliance, after fining the company $2.8B in 2021 for monopolistic practices.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said that, over the past few years, it has been inspecting Alibaba’s (BABA) process to become compliant with antitrust regulations, and the rectification work has achieved “good results.”

Alibaba (BABA) has completely stopped the “choose one of two” monopoly behavior, the regulator noted, adding that the company strictly regulated its own business operations, conscientiously implemented the platform’s main responsibilities, improved the corporate compliance management system, and improved the service level of merchants and consumers on the platform.

In the next step, SAMR will guide Alibaba Group (BABA) to continue to standardize operations, further improve compliance quality and efficiency, accelerate innovation-driven development, and continuously improve service levels, according to a Google-translated statement.

Jefferies analysts said in a note on Friday that the conclusion of the regulatory process was a “positive” for the company, which “highlights this is a new start and ensures compliance in operations.”

The stock market debut by Chinese tech giant Ant Group, backed by Jack Ma, billionaire founder of e-commerce platform Alibaba, was abruptly halted in 2020 by regulators citing major issues. Ant Group itself also underwent a regulator-supervised rectification process, with most of the major issues resolved by last year.

ADRs of Alibaba (BABA) rose 4.5% in premarket trading in the U.S. The news comes days after the company gained shareholder approval to upgrade its Hong Kong listing to primary status.