Singapore yesterday fined ride-hailing firms Grab and Uber Technologies Inc S$13 million (US$9.52 million) for breaking competition rules when they merged, saying that the deal increased fares and threw up roadblocks for competitors.
Singapore-headquartered Grab in March agreed to buy US competitor Uber’s ride-hailing and food business in Southeast Asia, ending a bruising battle between the companies.
In return, Uber received a 27.5 percent stake in Grab.
However the deal came under scrutiny across the region, and the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore was among watchdogs in several countries that launched probes.
In the conclusion to its investigation, the commission said it had found the merger had substantially reduced “competition in the ride-hailing platform market in Singapore.”
Grab fares rose between 10 and 15 percent after the deal as the company reduced the number of points earned by riders and made it harder for them to redeem them, it said.
Potential competitors were hampered by exclusivity agreements that Grab forged with taxi companies, car rental partners and some of its drivers, the commission said.
The deals meant that drivers could not work for other companies.
The commission fined Grab S$6.42 million and Uber S$6.58 million “to deter completed, irreversible mergers that harm competition.”
The body also accused Grab and Uber of not getting the commission’s clearance before completing the deal.
In addition to the fines, the commission ordered several measures be implemented to ease fares and allow new players to compete with Grab, including reverting to premerger pricing and allowing Grab drivers to use other ride-hailing platforms.
Grab Singapore country head Lim Kell Jay said that the firm completed the deal “within its legal rights, and still maintains we did not intentionally or negligently breach competition laws.”
The Philippine Competition Commission last month approved the merger, but imposed conditions related to areas including pricing and exclusivity arrangements to prevent Grab from acting like a monopoly.
Malaysian authorities are still examining the deal.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS