The Philippine Competition Commission fined ride-hailing app Grab Philippines again for violation of commitments, such as the lack of and insufficient submission of data including their possible manipulation.
The commission imposed on January 22 an additional P6.5-million penalty to Grab for submitting deficient, inconsistent and incorrect data for monitoring its compliance with with voluntary commitments,
“These commitments were designed to address the Commission’s concerns regarding Grab’s prcing behavior, as well as its incentives to maintain service quality, in the absence of a significant competitive pressure in the market,” said PCC chairman Arsenio Balisacan.
Balisacan said the commission could not effectively enforce the commitments without the submission of correct, sufficient, consistent and timely data by Grab.
Commissioner Johannes Bernabe said the submission of inaccurate data had “held the Commission from acting out its responsibility in an effective way to should result to an unbiased credible outcome.”
“We don’t want to presume that this will be indicative of an ongoing trend towards violating their undertaking,” he added.
Grab was supposed to provide information on a quarterly basis for one year to determine if it was adhering to its voluntary commitments.
Earlier, the company was fined P16 million for non-adherence to interim commitments prior to the monitoring period, which had nothing to do with its pricing behavior.
“We remain steadfast in binding Grab to its commitments, as these are meant to address the concerns of market competition and the ride-hailing public,” said Bernabe.
Meanwhile, the commission authorized the start of a preliminary inquiry into a possible bid-rigging of a government projects awarded in 2017.
Balisacan said the commission was aware of the urgency and significance of ensuring fairness in the competitive process of bidding, with the takeoff of the Build, Build, Build program.
“Let this be fair warning to all, taking turns to win projects or manipulating bids is an offense punishable by fines that may reach as high as P269 million, as well as imprisonment of up to 7 years,” he said.
The PCC to date received a total of 172 transactions with a combined value of P2.8 trillion. Of the total, 160 transactions were approved, mostly in the sectors of manufacturing, financial and insurance, real estate, electricity and gas and transportation and storage.