(Yicai Global) Dec. 30 -- Meituan is being sued for monopoly practices after the world’s largest food delivery service removed Ant Group’s mobile and online payment platform Alipay from its app.

The plaintiff, surnamed Wang, is pursuing a civil case against Meituan’s operators Beijing Sankuai Technology and Beijing Sankuai Information Technology, charging them with abusing its dominant market position, China Economic Weekly reported, citing a notice by Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court.

Meituan had a 68.2 percent share of China's takeout market as of the second quarter, up from 63.4 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to third-party Big Data researcher TrustData.

Meituan app users discovered Alipay had gone missing in July, the report said. Reinstated after an outcry by consumers, it was relegated to the shadowy recesses of the app.

Yicai Global reported in the same month that Meituan had pulled Alipay, the world’s largest mobile payment platform, and replaced it with its own credit service as the rivalry between China’s third-party payment platforms heated up.

A reporter with China Economic Weekly found on Dec. 28 that after placing takeout orders on the app, users can choose to pay with Alipay, but the option is hidden until revealed manually. The visible options were Meituan Pay, WeChat Pay and Apple Pay.

Shares of Meituan [HKG: 3690] rose 5.3 percent today to HKD287.80 (USD37.12) apiece. They have nearly tripled in value this year.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi