Lexus also fixed sales strategies in the region over the period, including offering customers discounts while asking them to purchase accessories at fixed prices, a sales tactic usual among individual auto dealers in China but frowned upon for carmakers.
A spokesman at Toyota, Lexus' parent firm, told Reuters the firm acknowledged the penalty and respects the decision. He did not comment further. China's auto sales are declining, but Lexus' sales keep growing. It sold 180,200 vehicles in the first 11 months this year, a 21% jump from a year earlier. In June, China's market regulator imposed an 162.8 million yuan fine on Ford Motor Co's joint venture with Changan Automobile Group for violating anti-monopoly law.