علي بابا توافق على دفع 433.5 مليون دولار لتسوية دعوى احتكار أمريكية

Alibaba Agrees to Pay $433.5 Million to Settle US Antitrust Lawsuit

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced on Friday that it has agreed to pay $433.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in the United States filed by investors accusing the company of anti-competitive practices.

Alibaba denied any wrongdoing, stating it entered into the settlement to avoid the costs and disruption of ongoing litigation.

The proposed settlement was filed in federal court in Manhattan and requires approval from U.S. District Judge George Daniels.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that Alibaba claimed it did not violate antitrust or unfair competition laws despite requiring merchants to choose only one distribution platform.

The settlement encompasses investors in Alibaba's American depositary receipts (ADRs) from November 13, 2019, to December 23, 2020. It addresses claims that they incurred losses when the market realized Alibaba's misleading information, leading to a decline in the company's share price.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs described the proposed deal in court documents as an "exceptional outcome," emphasizing that it significantly surpassed the average compensation in securities class-action lawsuits. They noted that investors' losses exceeded $10 billion.

The maximum compensation Alibaba investors could have sought if they continued with the litigation was $11.63 billion, according to the attorneys.

The case is "In re: Alibaba Group Holding Limited Securities Litigation," U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-09568.