Forty-five companies, including two Luckin Coffee operations, received a fine of up to 61 million yuan ($8.9 million) following a probe launched by state market regulators in April, Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday.

(Photo: AP)

Investigations show that the Chinese coffeehouse chain had inflated its revenue, costs, and profit margins of some products from April to September in 2019, with the help of 43 third-party companies.

The company also widely used false marketing data through various channels to deceive and mislead the public from August 2019 to April 2020, violating relevant regulations on anti-unfair competition.

The other 43 companies were fined for providing substantial assistance to Luckin to engage in false propaganda.

(Compiled by Shi Yuanhao)