Alibaba To Pay $433.5 Mn To Settle Shareholder Lawsuit Over Monopoly Claims

China's Alibaba said on Friday it had agreed to pay USD 433.5 million to settle a US class-action lawsuit filed by investors alleging monopolistic practices by the e-commerce giant.

Alibaba denied wrongdoing, saying it entered the settlement to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.

The proposed settlement was filed in federal court in Manhattan and requires the approval of US District Judge George Daniels.

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

The settlement covers investors in Alibaba's American depositary shares from 13 November 2019 to 23 December 2020 and resolves claims they suffered losses when the market recognised Alibaba's misleading statements and the stock price fell.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in court papers called the proposed deal "an exceptional result," saying it vastly exceeded the median recovery in securities class actions where the investor losses exceeded USD 10 billion.

The maximum damages award the Alibaba investors could have potentially sought had they continued litigating was USD 11.63 billion, the lawyers wrote.