China investigates Meituan and Alibaba units, Tongcheng and Tujia

Reuters, citing state broadcaster CCTV, reported that Beijing's branch of the State Administration for Market Regulation opened investigations after preliminary checks into Beijing Sankuai Information Technology, Hangzhou Taomei Aviation Services, Tongcheng Network Technology and Tujia Online Information Technology (Tianjin).

The China Hotel Association separately said Beijing regulators were investigating four online hotel and travel-booking platforms for unfair competitive practices. It did not identify the operators in its statement and said the action followed an industry meeting convened by the national market regulator and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Meituan said on its website that it would cooperate. Tongcheng, Tujia and Hangzhou Taomei said through official WeChat channels that they were cooperating; the companies also said operations were normal. Those are company statements and do not predict the findings.

The action comes amid tighter scrutiny of China's online travel market. Trip.com was recently ordered to pay about 5.2 billion yuan after regulators found monopolistic conduct in online hotel booking. The specific conduct, period under review and possible penalties in the four new investigations have not been disclosed.