Uber to submit appeal to Singapore regulator; Grab to pay S$6.42 million fine

Uber Technologies will be making an appeal on the S$6.58 million anti-competition fine slapped by the Singapore competition regulator.

Last month, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) fined both ride-hailing firms Grab and Uber a total of S$13 million after concluding that the merger in Singapore had driven up prices. The conclusion of the investigation led to fines and restrictions imposed on their businesses which will make the Singapore market more open to competitors.

Uber said it will be making the appeal independently.

“Our objective is not to challenge the remedies of the decision, which are in fact almost identical to the commitments that Uber and Grab voluntarily offered to the CCCS.

“Rather, we aim to clarify that the conclusion that our transaction with Grab led to a substantial lessening of competition, and that Uber intentionally breached the law, is unsupported and incorrect,” Uber said in a statement issued on Monday.

Grab, who was fined S$6.42 million, has decided against appealing on the regulator’s decision. Lim Kell Jay, head of Grab Singapore told The Straits Times the firm made the choice to pay up because they did not want the matter to drag on.

Uber had in March sold its Southeast Asian business to the region’s ride hailing giant Grab in exchange for a 27.5% stake in the company.

According to startup analytics portal Crunchbase, San-Francisco based Uber currently operates in over 60 countries and employs more than 5,000 staff. It has raised a total of US$22.2 billion in over 20 funding rounds.

Uber is said to be exploring an initial public offering (IPO) by the first half of next year, and banks are valuing the business to as much as US$120 billion.

The IPO would be a well-watched listing like the IPOs of other tech titans such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Facebook. The largest IPO on record is still Alibaba’s US$25 billion IPO in 2014.