China's State Administration for Market Regulation, the country's top market regulator, on Monday fined apparel and beauty platform Vipshop 3 million yuan ($464,000) over unfair competition.

Vipshop was found to have developed and used systems to obtain the information of brands operating on its platform as well as other e-commerce marketplaces from August to December 2020 in order to gain competitive advantage, the regulator said in a statement.

The platform was found to have influenced user choice by limiting transaction opportunities of certain brands, hindering the normal operations of retailers and limiting, blocking and removing products, according to the statement.

Vipshop breached the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, and good faith, disrupted fair competition and violated relevant laws.

In January, the regulator launched an investigation into the shopping platform over suspected improper competition behavior.