Uber may be facing fines and maybe even a broken deal in Singapore, as a consumer watchdog agency there says its merger with rival Grab earlier this year reduced competition and raised fares.
When Uber exited the Southeast Asian market this spring, it sold its operations to Grab in exchange for a 27.5% stake in the company, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joined Grab’s board. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore now wants to levy fines and reconsider the merger because of the anticompetitive issues, CNBC says.
The commission “may require the parties to unwind the transaction unless the aforesaid public consultation confirms that any of the proposed remedies, or any further remedies, are sufficient to address the identified competition concerns, and are implementable in practice,” it said in a statement. Uber and Grab have 15 days to make suggestions for solutions.
Toyota invested $1 billion in Grab—Asia’s ride-sharing leader—in June. The Southeast Asian market of 600 million people remains attractive to startups, but Uber has been exiting foreign markets, selling its China business to competitor Didi Chuxing and merging its Russian operations with domestic tech giant Yandex.
