Malaysia’s competition watchdog wants to fine Grab RM86.8mil, but will listen to its defence

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) has proposed a fine of RM86.8mil against Grab Inc, Grab Car Sdn Bhd and MyTeksi Sdn Bhd (Grab) for collectively breaching the Competition Act 2010.

It also wants to impose a daily penalty of RM15,000 per day for the date of service of the proposed decision.

However, MyCC chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail stressed that this was merely a proposed decision and not final.

He alleged that Grab had abused its dominant position by imposing a number of restrictive clauses on its drivers that prevented them from promoting and providing advertising services for Grab's competitors in the e-hailing and transit media advertising market.

“We have just completed investigations. This is a proposed decision, not final.

“Grab will have the opportunity to present its defence and then we will decide if there are infringements or not, ” he told a press conference on Thursday (Oct 3).

MyCC had said last year that it would monitor Grab for possible anti-competitive behaviour following its acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc's South-East Asian business in March of 2018.

Singapore-based ride-hailing Grab responded by saying it had cooperated with MyCC and had not been informed of any breaches since buying its rival.

Uber's deal to take a 27.5% stake in Grab in exchange had earlier raised a red flag with Singapore's competition watchdog, which last September fined both Grab and Uber a total of S$13mil (RM39.4mil) and imposed other measures to address competition concerns.

The Philippines also fined both companies 16 million pesos (RM1.3mil) last October, saying they had violated the conditions set by its competition regulator.