Trade Ministry begins investigation into Grab-Uber merger
The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a decision on May 18 on its official probe into ride-hailing company Grab’s takeover of Uber Technologies’ Southeast Asia business.
Hanoi (VNA) – The VietnamCompetition Authority (VCA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued adecision on May 18 on its official probe into ride-hailing company Grab’stakeover of Uber Technologies’ Southeast Asia business.
It said the investigation will take 180days and could be extended by up to 120 days.
The VCA said earlier this week its initial 30-dayprobe suggested Grab’s acquisition of Uber could have violated the CompetitionLaw. The preliminary investigation focused on contents of the investigatedparties, relevant markets, concentrated market shares and signs of violations.
Uber and Grab announced a deal in Marchunder which Uber would take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab in exchange for itsSoutheast Asian business.
The VCA sent a dispatch to Grab requestinginformation and documents related to the acquisition.
However, Grab claimed that since thecombined market share of both Grab and Uber in Vietnam was less than 30percent, it did not have to inform the competition authority before proceedingand completing this transaction in Vietnam.
The VCA then held a working session withGrab’s legal representative on April 6, but the firm failed to provide evidenceproving its claim.
Grab is one of the most frequently used O2O(online-to-offline) mobile platforms across 195 cities in Southeast Asia. Morethan five million people use the combined platform daily.
According to the ministry, if theconcentrated market share of parties accounts for 30 to 50 percent in themarket without announcement to VCA before their acquisition, the firms will befined 10 percent of their total revenue in the previous financial year. If therate is more than 50 percent, the transaction will be prohibited from beingcompleted.
Vietnam is not the only country where Grabis currently under fire. Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore are alsorequesting details of the acquisition. -VNA
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The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has decided to conduct a preliminary investigation into Grab’s purchase of Uber’s stakes in Vietnam, which is suspected to breach regulations on economic concentration under the country’s Law on Competition 2004.
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Illustrative image (Source: VNA) 
