Alibaba Group has been penalized 18 billion yuan ($2.75billion) by the Chinese regulators for violating anti-monopoly rules and abusing its dominant market position marking it the biggest antitrust fine to be ever imposed in the country.

Alibaba has been specially put under intense scrutiny after its founder Jack Ma’s criticized China’s regulatory system in late October. The penalty is equivalent to around 4% of Alibaba’s revenues in 2019, which comes among an unusual regulatory crackdown on the home-grown technology conglomerates in the last few months which were weighing on company shares. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced in late December that they had launched an antitrust probe into the company soon after the Chinese authorities halted a proposed $37billion IPO from Ant Group which is Alibaba’s internet finance arm. SAMR announced that after the investigation, it was found that Alibaba had been exploiting market dominance since 2015 by preventing its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms and that this practice violates China’s anti-monopoly law by preventing the free circulation of goods and transgressing on the business interests of the merchants.

The SAMR ordered Alibaba to make rectifications to establish internal compliance and protect consumer rights. Even though the method of preventing merchants from listing on rival platforms is an old one, the regulator stated out in the rules issued in February that it was illegal. Alibaba in its statement posted on its official Weibo account said that it accepted the decision and would firmly implement SAMR’s rulings and also work to improve its corporate compliance.