Overview
- The Justice Department announced Wednesday that Alibaba Group and its U.S. processor AUS Merchant Services entered non-prosecution agreements and will pay a combined roughly $600 million to resolve allegations they allowed illegal pharmaceuticals, precursor chemicals and pill-making equipment to be sold into the United States.
- Prosecutors said the companies admitted that between January 2016 and December 2024 roughly 80,000 unlawful transactions took place through Alibaba.com and AliExpress, with those sales totaling more than $200 million in merchandise value.
- Federal agents carried out more than 40 undercover purchases to document how sellers used platform listings, in-platform messaging and third-party chats to arrange prohibited sales that escaped normal oversight.
- The financial terms split the $600 million between the firms: Alibaba will forfeit $200 million and pay a $125 million criminal penalty while AUS will forfeit $190 million and pay an $85 million criminal penalty.
- Settlement papers and reporting say internal Alibaba staff had warned of weak controls and that AUS’s transaction monitoring missed wire-transfer data, and the agreements require both companies to strengthen compliance systems and continue cooperating with U.S. authorities, a change that could raise enforcement costs for cross-border marketplaces and payment firms.