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Chinese Watchdog Fines Academic Database CNKI For Monopolistic Practices

By  |  December 29, 2022

China’s antitrust watchdog has slapped privately-owned China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) with a 87.6 million yuan (US$12.6 million) fine for monopolistic behaviour, while the nation’s biggest academic database owner awaits a cybersecurity review.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Monday announced a fine equivalent to 5 percent of CNKI’s 2021 revenue of 1.75 billion yuan, after a seven-month investigation that found the private company abused its dominant position in the local market.

Read more: China’s Watchdog Probes Biggest Academic Database CNKI

The CNKI platform, where the majority of Chinese scholars and students access academic papers, has imposed unreasonable price hikes on user subscriptions, SAMR said in a statement. The firm platform also forced publishers and educational institutions to work exclusively with it since 2014, violating antitrust laws, it added.