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China Opens Competition Probes Into Meituan, Alibaba Travel Units

By  |  September 20, 2026
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Chinese regulators have opened investigations into businesses linked to Meituan and Alibaba as authorities intensify scrutiny of competition in the country’s online hotel and travel-booking market.

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    The Beijing branch of China’s State Administration for Market Regulation is investigating Meituan subsidiary Beijing Sankuai Information Technology over suspected breaches of unfair-competition rules, according to a Reuters report.

    The regulatory action extends beyond Meituan. Alibaba’s Hangzhou Taomei Aviation Services, Tongcheng Network Technology and Tujia Online Information Technology (Tianjin) are also under investigation following preliminary findings by authorities, Reuters reported, citing CCTV.

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    The inquiries add to regulatory pressure on China’s digital travel industry, where large platforms play a central role in connecting hotels and other tourism businesses with consumers. Beijing has continued efforts to curb practices regulators consider monopolistic or unfair even as policymakers seek to strengthen domestic spending during a period of slower economic growth, according to Reuters.

    Meituan said it would cooperate with authorities, Reuters reported. Tongcheng and Tujia said through their official WeChat accounts that their businesses were operating normally and that they were cooperating with regulators. Hangzhou Taomei also said it was working with authorities, according to the Reuters report.

    Read more: China’s Cyberspace Regulator Targets ByteDance’s Toutiao, Alibaba’s UCWeb in Crackdown

    The China Hotel Association separately said that Beijing’s market regulator had begun investigating four online hotel and travel-booking platforms for suspected unfair competitive practices, though the association did not identify the companies, according to Reuters. The action followed a meeting involving the market regulator, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and participants in the online-booking industry.

    The probes follow another significant enforcement action in China’s travel sector. Regulators recently imposed a 5.2 billion yuan penalty — about $776 million at the exchange rate cited by Reuters — on Trip.com over what authorities described as monopolistic conduct in online hotel booking.

    The latest investigations indicate that competition in online travel remains an enforcement priority as China balances oversight of its largest internet platforms with efforts to encourage consumer activity.

    Source: Reuters