CCI Rejects Price Fixing Allegations Against Ola, Uber

The Competition Commission of India on Tuesday rejected allegations of price fixing against app-based taxi service providers Ola and Uber.

The fair trade regulator said that the drivers acceding to “algorithmically determined prices” by the platforms does not amount to collusion between them. In a 13-page order, the CCI also dismissed complaints that Ola and Uber were imposing a resale price maintenance system on the drivers as well as an alleged price discrimination.

Estimation of fares by cab aggregators are done by algorithms on the basis of large data sets. Apart from personalised information, various other factors such as time of the day and traffic situation, are taken into account with respect to fares.

Generally, a hub and spoke arrangement requires the spokes to use a third party platform for exchange of sensitive information, including information which can facilitate price fixing. For a cartel to operate as a hub and spoke, the CCI said, there needs to be a conspiracy to fix prices, which requires existence of collusion in the first place.

“In the present case, the drivers may have acceded to the algorithmically determined prices by the platform, this cannot be said to be amounting to collusion between the drivers,” it noted.

Further, the regulator said that in the case of ride-sourcing and ride-sharing services, a hub-and-spoke cartel would require an agreement between all drivers to set prices through the platform or an agreement for the platform to coordinate prices between them.

“There does not appear to be any such agreement between drivers inter-se to delegate this pricing power to the platform/cab aggregators,” the watchdog said.

The complaint was filed by an individual against ANI Technologies, the parent of Ola, Uber India Systems, the Netherlands-based Uber BV and the U.S.-based Uber Technologies, the holding company of Uber group.

Uber BV enters into contract with different taxi owners attached to the Uber network and is responsible for making payments of rider services as well as incentives to drivers, according to CCI.

Noting that fares offered by Ola and Uber are dynamic in nature, the CCI said there does not seem to be any fixed floor price maintained by the taxi aggregators for drivers. Under the Competition Act, resale price maintenance refers to setting of a floor price on resale.

About alleged price fixing, the CCI said existence of an agreement, understanding or arrangement that demonstrates meeting of minds, is a sine qua non for establishing a contravention under Section 3 of the Act.

In the present case neither there appears to be any such agreement or meeting of minds between the cab aggregators and their respective drivers nor between the drivers inter-se, the order said.