Competition Commission has dismissed allegations that ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, abused its dominant position in New Delhi with predatory pricing ways. ANI Technologies is currently operating services under brand names Ola and Taxi For Sure.
In its order, CCI stated:
It seems implausible that with such a low market share, the opposite party (ANI Technologies) would be in a dominant position in the market for auto rickshaws in Delhi. In the absence of the opposite party holding a dominant position in the relevant market for auto rickshaws in Delhi, the question of abuse by it does not arise.
Earlier, it was alleged that the company was driving out existing players from the market as the fare charged by it was ‘abysmally low’. It was claimed that the fare price was less than one-third of the government prescribed rates.
In order to assess the complaint and whether there has been violation of competition norms, the regulator considered ‘provision of radio taxi services in Delhi and provision of auto rickshaw services in Delhi’ as the relevant market.
The complaint was dismissed by the company as during the investigation, it was fond that Ola is not a dominant player in the market. It further said that the present case does not bring any new or additional facts for different judgement. For this case, they referred to previous cases filed against Ola and Uber.
CCI further said that the ride hailing market is competitive and currently, none of the player in the market said to be in a dominating position in the national capital. And the market share for Ola is very low in Delhi compared to the market share of auto rickshaws.
Ola breath a sigh of relief with the dismissal of this case against Ola. However, the lay-offs seems to be an on-going cycle for the company. Just after laying-off more than 1,000 employees with the shut down of Taxi For Sure, today it has laid-off around 250 employees.
