Grab and Uber closed their merger before Singapore approved it — S$13M fine

In March 2018, Grab acquired Uber's Southeast Asia ride-hailing and food-delivery operations in exchange for a stake in Grab, closing the deal before Singapore's competition regulator had reviewed it. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore opened an investigation into whether the merger had substantially lessened competition.

The CCCS found that after the deal closed, Grab raised effective fares by cutting incentives and promotions it had committed to maintain, and locked drivers and car-rental fleets into exclusivity arrangements that blocked new ride-hailing entrants from the market Grab and Uber had just left as the only two players.

On September 24, 2018, the CCCS fined Uber S$6.58 million and Grab S$6.42 million — a combined S$13 million — and ordered Grab to drop all driver and fleet exclusivity deals, reverse pricing to pre-merger levels, and report pricing data to the regulator weekly while the market reopened to competitors.