Grab Philippines fined P9-M over delayed refunds

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Competition Commission punished Grab Philippines to the tune of P9 million, after the ride-hailing giant failed to refund consumers in full more than three years since they were ordered to do so.

A PCC statement on Monday said this new fine will be added to the P63.7 million in penalties stockpiled over the years since Grab was flagged by antitrust regulators when the company acquired Uber’s local operations back in 2018.

This P9 million fine came as a result of Grab Philippines failing to comply with the 60-day deadline to refund customers and for providing incorrect and misleading information in its compliance reports, as the PCC said Grab Philippines claimed it already completed its refunds. 

For context, the PCC already came out with a resolution on February 2, which imposed a P6 million fine since Grab violated three separate Commission orders to refund its customers P25.45 million. These fines were handed down as the PCC said the ride-hailing giant failed to comply on its price monitoring commitment.

The PCC noted it ruled Grab Philippines to comply with the order in November 2019, then a second a month later then the third order was issued in October 2020. The antitrust watchdog gave Grab a 60-day deadline to complete the refunds. 

That said, the P3 million which comprised this new fine came owing to information provided by Grab Philippines in its compliance reports. PCC reviewed Grab Philippines reports and found that it had only returned 24.16% of the total amount they were ordered to refund to customers as of June 2021. This was five months after the PCC’s third refund order.

Grab Philippines has yet to respond to Philstar.com's questions as of reporting.

“It was only after the PCC issued a show-cause order in January 2022 when compliance to the refund order shot up to 73.80% as of April last year, but still short of the full refund that Grab had claimed,” the PCC said. 

As it is, Section 29 (a and c) of the Philippine Competition Act allows the PCC to fine Grab Philippines since the watchdog found the ride-hailing giant provided misleading information and failed or refused to comply with the commission’s order.

The PCC ordered Grab Philippines to exhaust all means to inform customers about the pending refunds.