RIDE-HAILING firm Grab Philippines said it will not dispute the fine imposed by the antitrust regulator for breaching its initial pricing commitment.
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) ordered Grab Tuesday to pay a P23.45 million fine, P5.05 million of which should be refunded to consumers.
“Grab will abide by the PCC’s order to pay a P23.45 million fine, of which P5.05 million will go to our consumers; and recognizing the value of our tens of thousands of driver-partners, the entire fine will be borne solely by Grab, as it has with those which have been imposed in the past and in any of our markets,” President Brian P. Cu said in a briefing.
Mr. Cu said around 3 million Grab consumers who booked rides from February to May 2019 will receive an average refund of P1.50.
“(T)he average…a passenger will get is around P1.50. There are some that will get below a peso, there are others who will get over a hundred pesos, depende po ‘yon kung magkano at gaanong karaming trips tinake niyo (depending on how much they paid or how many rides they booked),” he said.
“We are firming up the disbursement procedures and we will inform our consumers within the time frame mandated by the PCC. Moving forward, Grab will work closely with the PCC in fulfilling its new set of voluntary commitments,” he added.
The amounts will be disbursed to the GrabPay Wallets of consumers within 60 days from Nov. 14.
Grab, meanwhile, has to pay to the government fines of P11.3 million and P7.1 million for the first and second quarter, respectively.
Mr. Cu also said that the fines will be paid out of a Grab contingency fund, with the payouts expected to affect the budgets of programs like driver inventives and promotions.
“None of these will be passed on to consumers or drivers,” he said.
Mr. Cu also maintained that the company has not overcharged passengers because it has always complied with the fare matrix set and approved by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
“And while Grab has always operated within this legal fare structure, however, there are current market conditions affected by uncontrollable factors — such as the supply of transport network vehicle services, booking demand, and traffic conditions — that have hindered us from maintaining the fare-in-range set by the PCC,” he said.
The PCC also announced Tuesday the approval of Grab’s undertaking, a condition for its acquisition of Uber’s Philippine operations.
In the undertaking, which took effect on Nov. 1 and will apply for a year, Grab is to provide refunds to its customers for breaching the 22.5% ceiling on the average fare increase per month before its acquisition of Uber’s Philippine operations, after Uber withdrew from a number of markets in the region.
PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan said the undertaking prevents Grab from “behaving like a monopolist to the detriment of the riding public.”
Grab may ask to be freed of the undertaking if a competitor enters the market and builds at least a 20% market share or two or more players seize a combined 30% market share. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
