Following preliminary investigations, the State Administration for Market Regulation has initiated a formal probe into Trip.com Group Limited for suspected monopolistic conduct involving the abuse of its dominant market position, in accordance with China's Anti-Monopoly Law.
In market trading, the news triggered a sharp decline in Trip.com's Hong Kong-listed shares during the late session. In the final ten minutes before the market close, the stock experienced a dramatic "deep V" pattern, first plummeting more than 9% before rapidly rebounding. It ultimately closed at HK$569.5 per share, down 6.49% for the day.
In December of last year, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Homestay Association initiated anti-monopoly rights protection actions against several online travel agency (OTA) platforms, including Trip.com. At that time, the association alleged that certain platforms, leveraging their market dominance, had engaged in unfair competition practices against the homestay industry in Yunnan. These practices reportedly included, but were not limited to, imposing "pick one of two" exclusivity clauses and unilaterally increasing commission rates arbitrarily. Feedback specifically targeting Trip.com was notably concentrated.
Furthermore, Trip.com was summoned for talks by market regulatory authorities on multiple occasions last year.
On August 5 last year, Trip.com, along with four other travel-related platform companies including Douyin and Fliggy, were called in for discussions by the Guizhou Provincial Market Supervision Administration. During the meeting, the regulator highlighted potential violations by these platforms, such as enforcing "pick one of two" policies, using technical means to interfere with merchant pricing, canceling or raising prices after order confirmation, engaging in price fraud, and inflating prices, thereby issuing further warnings about legal risks.
Subsequently, in September, the Zhengzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau in Henan Province administratively summoned Trip.com and ordered rectifications. This action was due to the company's practice of "using technical means to unreasonably restrict transactions and pricing by operators on the platform," which was found to violate Article 35 of the E-Commerce Law and Article 24 of the Interim Provisions on Combating Unfair Competition Online.
Despite the regulatory scrutiny, Trip.com's financial performance reached a new high last year. In the third quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue of 47.01 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.93%. Its net profit attributable to shareholders surged to 29.01 billion yuan, marking a significant growth of 94.59%. The third-quarter results were particularly striking, with revenue hitting 18.338 billion yuan, up 15.53% year-on-year, and net profit soaring to 19.89 billion yuan, an explosive increase of 194.01%. This marked the first time its quarterly net profit surpassed that of Kweichow Moutai.