PCC slaps Grab with ₱9M fine

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 15) – After it failed to comply with a reimbursement order to customers issued three years ago, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has hit Grab with a ₱9 million fine, the antitrust body said Monday.

“In a Resolution dated February 2, 2023, the PCC imposed a six-million peso fine on Grab for violating three separate Commission orders for the company to return a combined ₱25.45 million to its customers. The refund orders were issued after Grab failed to deliver on its Price Monitoring Commitment,” the regulator said.

READ: Antitrust body: Grab still owes customers up to ₱6M in refund

The PCC first ordered the ride-hailing service to refund ₱25.45 million to riders in November 2019. It issued a second order in December that year, and then a third refund order in October 2020.

“In the same Commission Resolution, the PCC also imposed a three-million peso fine on Grab for providing incorrect and misleading information in the compliance reports that the company submitted with respect to the refund orders. In those reports, Grab claimed that it had completed the refund,” the PCC said.

The body said that as of June 2021, Grab had only returned 24.16% of the amount ordered reimbursed to riders, five months after its third order. In January 2022, the PCC issued a show-cause order prompting Grab to refund 73.80% of the total, but still over a quarter short of the whole amount.

This ₱9 million fine is on top of the ₱63.7 million in penalties earlier imposed by the antitrust body for Grab’s violating PCC orders following its acquisition of lone rival Uber back in 2018.

Meanwhile, the PCC also ordered Grab to establish an alternative refund mechanism to aid riders claim the remaining funds and to better inform them of the reimbursement, or otherwise turn the funds over to the PCC to remit to the National Treasury.