On December 22 2015 the Competition Commission of India (CCI) prima facie closed the case for alleged abuse of dominance under Section 4 of the Competition Act against taxi service provider Uber.(1)
The case was filed by Meru Travel Solutions Private Ltd against Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd, Uber BV and Uber Technologies International Inc (collectively, the 'Uber group'). Meru alleged that the Uber group had abused its dominant position by way of predatory pricing in the provision of taxi services in Kolkata.
The CCI found that the relevant product market in the case at hand was the "market for services offered by radio taxis and yellow taxis of Kolkata". The CCI confirmed that there was stiff competition between the Uber group and other taxi service providers in this market. According to the CCI, since Uber was not dominant in the market, the question of abuse did not arise.
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Endnotes
(1) CCI order of December 22 2015. For the full text, please see the CCI's website.