China’s National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), the country’s online academic database, has been fined for monopolistic behavior, the country’s top market regulator said on Monday.
The State Administration for Market Regulation imposed a fine of 87.6 million yuan (12.55 million US dollars) on the platform, equivalent to 5% of its domestic sales in 2021, the regulator said in a statement.
CNKI has abused its dominant market position since 2014, selling database services at unfairly high prices and signing exclusive cooperation agreements.
Such behavior harmed competition in China’s academic database services market, infringed on users’ legitimate rights and interests, and jeopardized the innovation and development of related markets and academic exchanges, the ministry said.
The regulator urged CNKI to correct its mistakes and make sweeping reforms to its internal compliance framework, among other areas, to facilitate the industry’s well-regulated, healthy and innovative development.
