PCC says Grab gave incorrect data about its pricing

A commuter books a vehicle via ride-hailing app Grab in Manila. Top officials of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said Grab sent incorrect data about its pricing, slapping the company with a P6.5 million fine.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines–Grab Philippines sent incorrect data about its pricing, derailing the antitrust body from assessing whether or not the company has so far addressed the fallout since it took over Uber.

There were inconsistencies in Grab’s data about its pricing, top officials of Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said on Friday, slapping the company with a P6.5 million fine.

PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan said the fine was imposed because Grab submitted “deficient, inconsistent, and incorrect data for the monitoring of its compliance with its voluntary commitments.”

All this develops in the aftermath of Grab’s regional takeover of its rival Uber in March last year, a deal that made Grab a virtual monopoly in the Philippines.

READ: Grab-Uber deal to create ‘monopoly’

While this gave the company a stronger market power, many riders complained that such advantage did not necessarily translate to better services as higher fares preyed on a traffic-weary public.

PCC previously flagged this deal, launching a review amid concerns that the transaction might come at the expense of the ride-hailing market.

Months later, the antitrust body set this review aside after Grab agreed to so-called voluntary commitments, wherein the company would be monitored by an independent trustee to commit to certain changes in its operations.

Balisacan said that these commitments were made to address concerns in the company’s pricing behavior as well as incentives to maintain service quality “in the absence of a significant competitive pressure in the market.”

“However, the Commission cannot effectively enforce these commitments without the submission of correct, sufficient, consistent, and timely data by Grab,” he said.

Furthermore, PCC Commissioner Johannes Bernabe said the commitment that was violated is “related to price monitoring.”

“We have monitored together with the monitoring team that there are certain inconsistencies with the data as it relates to price monitoring commitment,” said Bernabe.

PCC did not say how incorrect or grave Grab’s actions are. It also remains to be seen if such actions would later on lead to a revival of the review, which has always been a fallback option.

“We do not want to presume that this is going to be a continuing trend towards violating their undertaking,” Bernabe said.

However, then-PCC Commissioner Stella Quimbo said sometime last year that the government could unwind the Grab-Uber deal “in an extreme situation where there would be a blatant disregard” of the commitments.

Moreover, this is not the first time the company has been fined by the competition watchdog.

Last year, PCC fined Grab and Uber P16 million for causing undue difficulties that prejudiced the review process of their controversial takeover deal.

READ: Grab, Uber ordered to pay P16M in fines

PCC officials said then that the violations of these companies have made the review process unnecessarily difficult, despite clear orders against such actions.

Broken down, both companies are collectively fined P4 million for failure to keep their businesses separate.

Grab, for its part, has been penalized to pay P8 million for failure to maintain pre-merger conditions such as pricing policies, rider promotions, driver incentives, and service quality.

Uber, as the acquired party, was fined P4 million or half of Grab’s fine for the same set of violations. /jpv