Economic Observer reporters Qian Yujuan and Chen Yueqin

On January 14th, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that based on preliminary investigations and in accordance with the Anti Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China, Ctrip Group Co., Ltd. has been investigated for suspected abuse of market dominance and monopolistic behavior. In response, Ctrip stated that the company will actively cooperate with regulatory authorities to investigate and fully implement regulatory requirements.

The Economic Observer learned that around January 12th, the investigation team of the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted an investigation at Ctrip's Shanghai headquarters.

A person close to the regulatory authorities told the Economic Observer that the market regulatory authorities have received complaints from local regulatory authorities, enterprises, and other levels in the past year, reflecting that online travel platforms (OTAs) such as Ctrip are suspected of violating regulations such as requiring merchants to choose between two options and automatically adjusting prices.

One of the landmark events that made Ctrip's alleged monopoly public was the release of a document by the Yunnan Tourism and Homestay Industry Association on November 21, 2025, titled "Decision on Launching Anti Monopoly and Rights Protection Work for OTA Unfair Competition".

The document states that in recent years, the association has received complaints from multiple member units, reflecting that certain OTA platforms such as Ctrip have used their dominant market position to implement unfair competition practices in the Yunnan homestay industry, including but not limited to "choose one or two" clauses, unilateral arbitrary commission increases, setting unfair trading conditions, and blocking traffic.

On January 14th, He Shuang, the president of the Yunnan Tourism and Homestay Industry Association, who issued the above-mentioned documents, stated in the Economic Observation Report that in 2025, the association received feedback from local hotel and homestay merchants in Yunnan, stating that OTA platforms violated relevant market rules and anti-monopoly requirements, especially by using their dominant market position to make merchants choose between two options. After receiving feedback, the Yunnan Tourism and Homestay Industry Association first confirmed the relevant facts with the legal department, and ultimately decided to investigate the anti-monopoly behavior of OTA platforms such as Ctrip.

The Yunnan Tourism Homestay Industry Association is under the supervision of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Culture and Tourism, and was registered and established in December 2023. As of January 2026, its members have nearly 7000 hotel and homestay units.

Our main task is to collect evidence, "He Shuangquan revealed. Even before member companies provided feedback, the association had already obtained some evidence of suspected monopoly on OTA platforms. Due to differences in understanding of" anti-monopoly "among member companies, the association has been conducting evidence screening work.

The full name of He Shuang is mentioned in the merchant's complaint, which mainly refers to Ctrip's requirement for special brand merchants to "choose one out of two". "Ctrip platform's business managers will verbally communicate with merchants and require them to remove products from other OTA platforms," but Ctrip does not impose a mandatory "choose one out of two" requirement on other gold medal merchants or ordinary merchants.

Previously, some local regulatory authorities have also frequently taken action against tourism platforms suspected of engaging in unfair competition. In August 2025, the Guizhou Provincial Administration for Market Regulation held talks with five travel related platform enterprises, including Ctrip, and reported on possible issues such as implementing a "two choice one" policy, using technological means to intervene in merchant pricing, breaking contracts or increasing prices after orders take effect, price fraud, and price manipulation on the platforms involved.

In September of the same year, the Zhengzhou Market Supervision Administration conducted a separate interview with Ctrip, stating that after investigation and verification, Ctrip had the problem of using service agreements, transaction rules, and technical means to impose unreasonable restrictions on the transactions and transaction prices of operators on the platform, and issued a "Notice of Correction of Liability" to Ctrip.

The full name of He Shuang. There are many statistical methods for OTA industry data. The sample data detected by the association shows that liquor and tourism special brand merchants, including special brand homestays, receive over 60% of online traffic on Ctrip. He believes that this may lead to the loss of traffic to some innovative small platforms or personalized tourism service platforms. Many platforms are unable to obtain the qualification for merchants to join, and high-quality merchants cannot independently display on other platforms

Under supervision, Ctrip has also made corresponding adjustments. On January 5-6, 2026, Ctrip will adjust its listing display rules, and the "Gold Medal" (golden thumb) and "Special Brand" (red thumb) logos for hotel and travel merchants on the client will be fully removed. The presentation of listed and non listed hotels will no longer have visual differences. Previously, the "Gold Medal" and "Special Brand" logos were a certification of hotel level.

The person in charge of a Ctrip Jinte brand homestay reported to the Economic Observer: "The Ctrip business manager informed us that the logo of Jinte/Te brand merchants on the Ctrip app is only hidden, and all rights and traffic remain unchanged. ?

The person in charge of the homestay said that Ctrip's exclusive agreement was not a secret in the wine and travel circle. Ctrip's requirement for special brand merchants was that "OTAs such as Meituan and Feizhu, as well as Tiktok and other platforms could not be accessed", while for gold medal merchants, it was required that "the price of Ctrip is 5% lower than that of the whole network. This was related to a set of dynamic algorithm system called" Price Adjustment Assistant "within Ctrip.

The person in charge of the homestay said that Ctrip's algorithm system will crawl the same city and same room prices of platforms such as Meituan and Fliggy in real time. Once it is found that a merchant's price on other platforms is lower than Ctrip's, the system will automatically trigger a price adjustment mechanism, directly modify the merchant's backend listing price or achieve the "lowest price on the entire network" by reducing weight, canceling subsidies and other means.

Once a merchant causes Ctrip to lose its price advantage, it will trigger a price adjustment. The platform's algorithm system usually does not randomly adjust the merchant's price system. "The person in charge of the homestay mentioned above explained that this automatic price adjustment behavior is known as" price lock "in the industry.

The person in charge of the homestay revealed that Ctrip's business manager will verbally require special brand merchants offline not to sell on platforms other than Ctrip. This verbal regulation is consistent with the clues collected by He Shuangquan from members of the association. He Shuangquan stated that it is more difficult to obtain evidence by verbally demanding a "choice between two" than by putting it on paper in an exclusive agreement.

A lawyer who has long been concerned about the field of anti-monopoly told the Economic Observer that according to Article 19 of the Anti Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China, if an operator's market share in the relevant market reaches half, it can be presumed that the operator has a dominant market position.

According to data calculated by Bank of Communications International, as of the end of 2024, Ctrip's market share in the core wine and travel market GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) has reached 56%. If its strategic investment in the same journey travel (market share of about 13%) is taken into account, "Ctrip Series" accounts for nearly 70% of the domestic OTA market in total, far surpassing rivals Meituan (about 13%), Feizhu (about 8%) and Tiktok (about 3%).