New Delhi, July 2 -- WASHINGTON - For eight years, US law enforcement agents placed undercover orders on Chinese e-commerce platforms. Chemicals that serve as pharmaceutical precursors. Counterfeit drug products. Manufacturing equipment used to produce fake medications. The orders went through Alibaba's platforms - including AliExpress, one of the world's largest e-commerce sites - and they were filled.

On Wednesday, Alibaba Group and its US payment processor AUS Merchant Services agreed to pay $600 million to settle the resulting federal investigation, entering non-prosecution agreements that required both companies to acknowledge their compliance failures and commit to new controls. The settlement resolves allegations spanning 2016 thr...