AFP, Beijing :
Beijing has fined the Chinese unit of General Motors nearly $29 million for “infringing on the rights of consumers and its competitors” via price-fixing, Shanghai authorities said.
SAIC-GM-a joint venture between the American company and the state-owned SAIC Motor Corporation, China’s biggest automaker by production volume-has been ordered to cough up 201 million yuan ($28.9 million), approximately four percent of its mainland sales last year, Shanghai’s top development and economic reform body said on their website in a Friday statement.
“The fine is fair. We just aim to improve market order,” the state-owned China Daily newspaper cited Xu Xinyu, the official in charge of the GM investigation, as saying.
“SAIC-GM will respect the views of the National Development and Reform Commission,” a spokesperson from the company said Friday, according to Chinese website Today’s Economic News.
It is the second time in weeks China has slapped a multi-million dollar fine on a US company for alleged monopolistic pricing behaviour, the paper added.
Earlier this month, the country’s top economic regulator issued a 119 million yuan ($17.1 million) fine to Medtronic, an American supplier of high-end medical devices.
Beijing has fined the Chinese unit of General Motors nearly $29 million for “infringing on the rights of consumers and its competitors” via price-fixing, Shanghai authorities said.
SAIC-GM-a joint venture between the American company and the state-owned SAIC Motor Corporation, China’s biggest automaker by production volume-has been ordered to cough up 201 million yuan ($28.9 million), approximately four percent of its mainland sales last year, Shanghai’s top development and economic reform body said on their website in a Friday statement.
“The fine is fair. We just aim to improve market order,” the state-owned China Daily newspaper cited Xu Xinyu, the official in charge of the GM investigation, as saying.
“SAIC-GM will respect the views of the National Development and Reform Commission,” a spokesperson from the company said Friday, according to Chinese website Today’s Economic News.
It is the second time in weeks China has slapped a multi-million dollar fine on a US company for alleged monopolistic pricing behaviour, the paper added.
Earlier this month, the country’s top economic regulator issued a 119 million yuan ($17.1 million) fine to Medtronic, an American supplier of high-end medical devices.
