New Delhi, July 2 -- six hundred million dollars.

Alibaba Group Holding and its United States payment-processing arm, AUS Merchant Services, agreed to pay $600 million to resolve allegations that they failed to prevent merchants from selling and importing illegal drugs, controlled substances, listed chemicals, and pharmaceutical-grade counterfeiting equipment through the company's e-commerce platforms, the US Justice Department announced on Thursday.

The settlement, structured as non-prosecution agreements for both entities, covers conduct between January 2016 and December 2024 across Alibaba.com and AliExpress.com. Federal prosecutors said approximately 80,000 product sales violated US law during that period, with merchandise value exc...