Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 27) — Ride-hailing company Grab could face another round of fines as it still owes customers up to ₱6 million in total refund, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said on Monday.
The refund case dates back to 2019 when Grab was ordered to reimburse riders about ₱25 million after the antitrust body fined it for overpricing its services.
Grab has settled only 70% of that supposed refund, the PCC said during its first press conference since a new chairperson took its helm.
“The PCC has found that Grab has not yet fully refunded all of the amounts that they are supposed to have given to the riders, tayo pong mga pasahero [we the passengers]. That’s ongoing,” said PCC OIC-Director Ivy Medina.
Medina asked that the PCC be given time to decide on whether Grab would be given another fine.
\”The commission is now considering whether or not the circumstances or the reasons for which that refund was not yet fully paid to consumers would merit another fine to be imposed on Grab. Please give us time to complete that decision-making process,” she added.
The refund case is separate from the ₱40-million fine the antitrust body wants to collect from Grab emanating from the latter’s failure to fulfill its price commitments.
“There’s about 30 percent remaining. I don’t know how much of that is because of that difficulty — some baka nawala na Grab account nila (some might not have their Grab accounts anymore). There are reasons being cited so that’s what’s being looked at by our adjudication office,” PCC chairperson Michael Aguinaldo said.
Under a new leadership, the PCC plans to ask lawmakers to give it more teeth in enforcing the antitrust provisions of the Philippine Competition Act to avoid monopoly.
PCC is empowered to untangle mergers and acquisitions like how Grab took over Uber half a decade ago. But the agency said it is fostering an alliance more than antagonizing regulators that approved the merger.
“I don’t know if we can say in hindsight it was a misstep,” Aguinaldo said when asked about the wisdom behind transport regulators’ giving the go signal to the Grab-Uber merger as the agency acknowledges that with Grab being the lone provider now of ride-hailing services here, the status quo undeniably is a monopoly.
“In terms of teeth, they (Grab) have not been complying but it is a game of itself.” he said. “They have changed their behavior a number of times already… It’s something that will continue to go on,” Aguinaldo said.
In a statement, Grab said it remains committed to fulfilling its obligations.
“Grab Philippines remains fully committed to complying with its undertakings and commitments with the PCC, and doing right by its stakeholders — especially its millions of users,” said the company.
Grab added it would work with the PCC to fully resolve the issue at the soonest possible time.
\”Through its engagements with the PCC, Grab Philippines has provided the Commission a set of disbursement options, and is presently awaiting the PCC’s decision so that the chosen option can be implemented immediately,\” they said.
