Grab Philippines said it continues to “actively” work with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to “exhaust” all possible measures to pay the remaining 27 percent of the administration fee.
“To date, Grab has successfully paid 73 percent of the administration fee and continues to actively work with the PCC to exhaust all possible measures to fully exhaust the remaining 27 percent of the administration fee,” Grab Philippines said in a statement on Tuesday.
Following the announcement by the competition authority that it is currently considering imposing a fine on Grab Philippines for not paying the full amount of the refund to its users, the taxi app said it remains “fully committed to meeting its obligations and commitment to the PCC and proper action by stakeholders.”
As part of its engagement with PCC, Grab Philippines stated that it has provided the competition authority with a set of “disbursement options” and is currently awaiting PCC’s decision so that the selected option can be implemented immediately.
“Grab Philippines remains as ready and committed as possible to work with the new commission to fully resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
At a media briefing on Monday, Ivy Medina, acting director of PCC’s Office of Mergers and Acquisitions, said: “The Commission is currently considering whether the circumstances due to which these refunds have not actually been fully paid to consumers are meritorious. impose another fine.
Medina said there was a “flaw” in the way the taxi app complied with the requirement, whereby part of the amount they were supposed to give was not fully refunded to consumers. For his part, PCC Chairman Michael G. Aguinaldo noted that there are parts of the refund order that Grab cannot comply with. However, he said the taxi app had given reasons for its inability to refund the amounts. Aguinaldo said the panel’s decision could be based on the sufficiency of Grab’s reasons and the validity of the app’s inability to refund the amounts.