Alibaba Group reaches settlement agreement on US shareholder class action lawsuit!
On October 26th, Alibaba Group announced that it had reached a settlement agreement regarding the previously publicly disclosed class action lawsuit involving presumed shareholders.
The announcement shows that the above settlement does not constitute recognition or determination of any legitimate reasons for the claims in the lawsuit. The company denies any allegations of fault, liability, misconduct, or damage, and the settlement is only reached to avoid further litigation costs and interference.
Reaching a settlement agreement
Alibaba Group's US stock announcement stated that it has reached a settlement agreement with some current and former executives and directors to resolve shareholder class action lawsuits previously disclosed in public records.
According to the settlement agreement, Alibaba has agreed to pay $433.5 million (approximately RMB 3.08 billion) to settle the aforementioned lawsuit. All defendants will be fully exempt from all claims raised in this lawsuit.
The announcement states that the settlement agreement must meet multiple conditions, including obtaining court approval, and does not constitute any recognition or determination of the substantive value of the claims claimed in the lawsuit. Alibaba stated that the company denies any allegations of fault, liability, misconduct, or damage, and "we have reached this settlement agreement to avoid the cost and interference of further litigation
Public information shows that from November 2020 to January 2021, due to the anti-monopoly investigation launched by the State Administration for Market Regulation against Alibaba, some American investors filed a class action lawsuit against Alibaba in the Southern District Court of New York. After multiple rounds of mediation, the two parties reached a settlement agreement to settle the aforementioned case for $433.5 million.
At present, the settlement agreement has been submitted to the Manhattan Federal Court and is awaiting approval from the court.
Completed three-year rectification
On the afternoon of August 30th this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that Alibaba Group had completed a three-year rectification and achieved good results.
For Alibaba, this is a new starting point for development. In the future, we will continue to focus on innovation, adhere to compliant operations, increase investment in technology, promote the healthy development of the platform economy, and create more value for society. "At that time, Alibaba responded.
The State Administration for Market Regulation announced that Alibaba strictly regulates its own business behavior, conscientiously implements the platform's main responsibility, improves its corporate compliance management system, enhances the service level of merchants and consumers on the platform, and achieves good results in compliance rectification work. Next, the General Administration will provide solid support for building world-class enterprises and enhancing international competitiveness.
It is reported that in April 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued administrative guidance on Alibaba Group's implementation of the "two choice one" monopoly behavior in China's online retail platform service market in accordance with the law, ordering it to stop illegal activities, conduct comprehensive self-examination and rectification, and submit self-examination compliance reports to the State Administration for Market Regulation for three consecutive years.
In the past three years, the State Administration for Market Regulation has strengthened its supervision of Alibaba Group's compliance rectification, conducted in-depth inspections of the implementation of rectification, and commissioned third-party institutions to conduct law enforcement effectiveness evaluations.
According to the announcement, based on the verification and evaluation results, Alibaba Group has fully stopped the "two choice one" monopoly behavior in accordance with the requirements of the "Administrative Penalty Decision" and "Administrative Guidance", strictly regulated its own business behavior, conscientiously implemented the platform's main responsibility, improved the enterprise compliance management system, enhanced the service level of merchants and consumers on the platform, achieved good results in compliance rectification work, improved the online retail market environment, effectively restored fair competition order, continuously expanded market development space, significantly improved competition vitality between platforms, and continuously optimized the quality of platform economic development and business environment.