In a shocking move, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has imposed a hefty penalty of PHP 9 million to Grab for failure to refund its customers. Where did this even come from?

Late in 2019, the same governing body also demanded that Grab return as much as PHP 5.05 million to its users for breaching price commitments. For those who remember, transport giant Uber used to operate in Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines as well. However, after a merger in 2018, Uber’s operations in the region were sold for a 27.5% stake as well as a seat on the Grab executive board. While the transition of both employees and drivers was seamless, this effectively turned Grab into a monopoly in the PH.

Due to this, the company was forced to agree to a maximum of 22.5% price deviation as not to make the service inaccessible to the common Filipino. Sadly, this was breached via overpriced rides and the company was ordered to partly refund the riders through its own means instead of fully paying off the PCC.

When calculating the total amounts so far, the penalties add up to PHP 63.7M in 2018, PHP 5.05M in November 2019, PHP 14.15M in December 2019, and PHP 6.25M in October 2020. While the firm has acted to pay off some of its Grab penalty fees, it was mentioned earlier this year that the company still owes its riders around PHP 6M in total.

Well, failure to fully reimburse the commuting public has ballooned this fine even larger as PHP 9M was just added today.

This is a developing story and we’ll be sure to provide the latest scoop.