By Keith Zhai

China's antitrust regulator imposed a fine equivalent to $2.8 billion against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. for abusing its dominant position over rivals and merchants on its e-commerce platforms, a record penalty in the country that comes amid a wave of scrutiny on the business empire of Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation said Saturday in Beijing that Alibaba punished certain merchants who sold goods both on Alibaba and on rival platforms, a practice that it dubbed "er xuan yi" -- literally, "choose one out of two."

As part of the penalty, regulators will require that Alibaba carry out a comprehensive revamp of its operations and submit a "self-examination compliance report" within the next three years, they said. The 18.2 billion yuan fine is equivalent to 4% of the company's domestic annual sales, the regulator added. Under Chinese rules, antitrust fines are capped at 10% of a company's annual sales.

Alibaba's business practices limited competition, affected innovation, infringed on the rights of merchants and harmed the interests of consumers, the regulator said.

"Alibaba accepts the penalty with sincerity and will ensure its compliance with determination," the company said. "To serve its responsibility to society, Alibaba will operate in accordance with the law with utmost diligence, continue to strengthen its compliance systems and build on growth through innovation."

The antimonopoly fine levied against Alibaba, which posted $72 billion in revenue for its most recent fiscal year that ended in March 2020, far surpassed previous Chinese regulatory penalties in absolute terms. In 2015, Qualcomm Inc. paid a fine of $975 million, equal to 8% of domestic sales, after a yearlong investigation into alleged violations of China's antimonopoly law.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that regulators were considering hitting Alibaba with a fine exceeding the one levied on Qualcomm as punishment for the online retailer's anticompetitive practices.

"The regulator's punishment of Alibaba Group is a move to standardize the company's development and set it on the right path, to purify the industry, and to forcefully protect fair competition in the market," the Communist Party's flagship newspaper the People's Daily said in a commentary on the regulator's statement, adding that the fine is "also a kind of love."

The fine isn't intended to deny the importance of the platform economy to China's development or to signify a change in state support for its development, the newspaper said.

The punishment was announced less than four months after China's top regulator launched an antitrust probe into Alibaba, focusing on vendor claims that Alibaba pressured them into selling exclusively on its e-commerce platform. It is the harshest rebuke yet against the company, though it also removes some uncertainty over the company's future.

Alibaba came under regulatory scrutiny after Mr. Ma angered government officials, including President Xi Jinping, with his criticism that regulatory restrictions were hampering innovation. Mr. Ma's comments also derailed the much-anticipated initial public offering of Ant Group, a financial services firm that will be forced to restructure its business.

Since the investigation was announced, Alibaba has made conciliatory gestures such as establishing a task force to review its businesses internally and by saying it will shoulder more social responsibility.

Write to Keith Zhai at keith.zhai@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-09-21 2242ET