Chinese online travel services giant Trip.com has been ordered by a mainland court to make an exception in the application of its privacy policy after finding that the Shanghai-based company engaged in price discrimination, potentially opening the company to further legal action that could force it to change its policies for all users.
The Keqiao District People’s Court in Shaoxing, a city in eastern Zhejiang province, last week ruled that Hong Kong-listed Trip.com must either allow for the plaintiff to use its services without agreeing to the platform’s privacy policy and service agreement or stop collecting unnecessary personal information.
The ruling comes at a time when the Chinese government is building up a legal framework that restricts the country’s technology platforms from excessively collecting personal data from their users.