PCC is monitoring if Grab is improving service

December 21, 2018

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is monitoring if Grab Philippines is improving its service.

  "We are still on the monitoring stage. They have committed to improve services, quality, the prices, (and address) complaints," PCC chair Arsenio Balisacan said in an ambush interview in Pasig City on Friday.

  "We are monitoring them regularly," he added.

The agency is monitoring Grab for one year but Balisacan said it can be withdrawn once the market situation improves.

Last October, the PCC fined Grab Philippines and Uber a total of P16 million  for violating key provisions of the Interim Measures Order (IMO) during the merger review period. Grab appealed the fine.

The parties were collectively fined P4 million  for failure to keep their businesses separate. It also penalized both Grab and Uber for their failure to delay Uber’s assumption of a board seat in Grab during the review period.

Grab, on its own, was found liable to pay the penalty of P8 million for failure to maintain the conditions before the transaction, 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. Ella Dionisio/DMS