Oct 25 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba ( BABA ) said on

Friday it had agreed to pay $433.5 million to settle a U.S.

class-action lawsuit filed by investors alleging monopolistic

practices by the e-commerce giant.

Alibaba ( BABA ) denied wrongdoing, saying it entered the settlement

to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.

The proposed settlement was filed in federal court in

Manhattan and requires the approval of U.S. District Judge

George Daniels.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that Alibaba ( BABA ) claimed it

did not violate anti-monopoly or unfair competition laws,

despite requiring merchants to choose only one distribution

platform.

The settlement covers investors in Alibaba's ( BABA ) American

depositary shares from Nov. 13, 2019, to Dec. 23, 2020, and

resolves claims they suffered losses when the market recognized

Alibaba's ( BABA ) misleading statements and the stock price fell.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in court papers called the

proposed deal "an exceptional result," saying it vastly exceeded

the median recovery in securities class actions where the

investor losses exceeded $10 billion.

The maximum damages award the Alibaba ( BABA ) investors could have

potentially sought had they continued litigating was $11.63

billion, the lawyers wrote.

The case is in re Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Securities

Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York,

No. 20-09568.