When the rumours appeared, everyone scrambled to put the news out first; when there is confirmation of a stop-order for the Uber-Grab deal, the same news outlets are deathly quiet. It goes to show that if something is bad for business – positive or otherwise – it won’t make headlines. The public agencies in charge of making sure competition is thriving, likely, aren’t media darlings.
At press time, it’s already Day 1 for the Uber ride-hailing service in Southeast Asia to merge with Grab. Just 24-hours before, a stop-order came from the Philippines’ anti-trust agency. As some have predicted, there isn’t enough time for a full evaluation before the Uber-Grab deal goes into motion. For everything to settle under two-weeks, it’s near impossible.
Philippines, effectively, put Uber back to work while its agencies review the Uber-Grab deal.
According to the Straits Times, Singapore has taken similar action. Right now, the island nation has delayed the Uber app shutdown by a week. Thusly, the ride-hailing platform must continue to operate until 15 April 2018.
The feasibility of such a move is not outside of Uber Southeast Asia means.
“Uber [is] compliant with our anti-trust counterpart in Singapore to extend the operation of its app. [This] indicates the feasibility of continuing its operations in the Philippines as well,” says Arsenio Baliscan, Chairman, Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).
On Singapore’s end, the stop-order also includes for both parties to continue as separate entities. As per BoardingArea report, the Competition Commission of Singapore insists Grab and Uber cannot share any confidential information. In fact, it cannot merge until the investigations wrap up.
Malaysia, meanwhile, is still reviewing the Uber-Grab deal and has yet to take any action. To-date, there has been no comment about having a monopoly taking over the ride-hailing space. According to Reuters, the Malaysian government of the day is watching closely for any possible anti-competitive behaviour.
“We won’t take [this buy-out] lightly. [For now,] we will monitor this development as it is still in the early days. [Truth be told,] we don’t know what will happen next,” shares Dato’ Sri Nancy Shukri, Minister in the Prime Minister Department.
The Southeast Asia region will know for sure if Grab will stay true to its promise. Having a monopoly is a dangerous precedent; so whatever moves Grab makes will be under critical scrutiny.
