Weekly News Wrap: JD’s Richard Liu steps back as president; Thailand reopens shopping malls

And Apple is facing an anti-trust case in India over its in-app purchase system.

From CNBC

JD.com’s founder and CEO Richard Liu is stepping back from day-to-day operations whilst the Chinese e-commerce giant said it has created a new president role.

Xu Lei, who was previously CEO of JD Retail, will take up the role of president and take over the day-to-day operations of JD.com and collaborative development of various business units of the company.

Meanwhile, Liu will remain chairman and CEO but will switch focus to formulating the e-commerce giant’s long-term strategies, mentoring younger management and “contributing to the revitalization of rural areas,” the company said.

The latest moves comes as China’s technology giants, including Alibaba, ByteDance and Pinduoduo, have undergone leadership reshuffles in the past few years, with founders taking more of a long-term strategic role.

“JD has a sound management structure with a large number of excellent business leaders, who, represented by Mr. Lei Xu, have a strong belief in JD’s long-term business philosophy, proven leadership capability and extensive industry experience,” Liu said.

Read more here.

From Reuters

Thailand allowed shopping malls in the capital Bangkok to reopen and restaurants to operate at half capacity, after nearly three months of tough restrictions aimed at containing the country's worst coronavirus outbreak.

The move comes after infection numbers started falling in the middle of last month and with the government under pressure to ease lockdown measures due to the impact on the economy.

"Thai citizens like me... will come back to normal life," said Wanvipa Luepromchian, who was getting her hair cut in a salon in the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok.

The government, in July, started imposing strict measures including closing malls and prohibiting restaurant dining as the number of new infections surged due to the Delta variant. At its peak, authorities reported over 23,000 new cases in a single day in mid-August.

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From Reuters

Apple is facing an antitrust challenge in India for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system, according to a source and documents seen by Reuters.

The allegations are similar to a case Apple faces in the European Union, where regulators last year started an investigation into Apple's imposition of an in-app fee of 30% for distribution of paid digital content and other restrictions.

The Indian case was filed by a little-known, non-profit group which argues Apple's fee of up to 30% hurts competition by raising costs for app developers and customers, whilst also acting as a barrier to market entry.

"The existence of the 30% commission means that some app developers will never make it to the market... This could also result in consumer harm," said the filing, which has been seen by Reuters.

Unlike Indian court cases, filings and details of cases reviewed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) are not made public.

Read more here.