India plans to cap commissions for Uber, Ola: Economic Times

FILE PHOTO: A screen displays the company logo for Uber Technologies Inc. on the day of it's IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 10, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India plans to cap commissions app-based taxi aggregators such as Uber (UBER.N) and home-grown Ola earn on rides to a maximum 10% of the total fare, financial daily Economic Times (ET) reported on Thursday, citing people privy to the matter.

The potential move could be another blow to San Francisco-based Uber after the ride-hailing firm was stripped of its license to carry paying passengers in London on Monday for the second time in just over two years over a “pattern of failures” on safety and security.

Ola too has announced its expansion into London, a market also occupied by Estonia’s Bolt and the city’s ubiquitous black cabs.

This is the first time the Indian government is looking to regulate commissions collected by such firms, which currently stand at about 20%, the paper reported here

Uber and Ola did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The two companies, which count Japanese investment major SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) as one of their backers, dominate the Indian app-based taxi market and were even partly blamed for slowing auto sales in the country by its finance minister.

The government’s planned move would allow states to levy charges on these aggregators’ earnings if they choose to, ET reported, adding that there were also plans to cap surge pricing to twice the base fare.

Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

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