SINGAPORE — Users of the Uber mobile application in Singapore may continue using it until April 15, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said on Friday (April 6), as it continues its investigation into the merger between the United States-based ride-hailing pioneer and Grab, its Singapore-based rival.

The commission said that both companies had agreed to extend the deadline by one week in order to facilitate the investigation. The extension is limited to the Singapore market, a Grab spokesperson said.

Uber’s app was due to stop running on April 8, as part of changes triggered by Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s South-east Asian operations. However, news of the deal prompted the commission to launch an investigation, as well as to issue a set of proposed interim directives to both companies to “preserve and/or restore competition and market conditions”.

This meant that both parties would have to maintain their pre-transaction pricing, pricing policies and product options for their services in Singapore.

The commission said that under the proposed directives, Grab and Uber would not be able to obtain any confidential information from each other, including information related to pricing, formulas, customers and drivers.

Grab must ensure that Uber drivers, who are joining its ride-hailing platform of their own accord, are not subject to any exclusivity clauses, lock-in periods and/or termination fees.

In its statement on Friday, the CCCS also disclosed that both ride-hailing companies had written in to offer alternatives to the interim arrangement introduced by the commission. TODAY understands that Uber and Grab submitted separate proposals.

The CCCS said that it is reviewing the proposals, but gave no details of their content. Asked how long the review would take, the commission told TODAY that it would depend on the “facts and circumstances of the case”, and the “level of co-operation” by Uber, Grab and relevant third parties.

“CCCS is aware of the need to expedite investigations in this case,” the commission added.

Grab declined to discuss the proposals, saying that they are still being reviewed by the commission. Uber referred TODAY’s questions to Grab.

Grab’s spokesperson is optimistic that the alternative interim measures submitted to the commission will “ease concerns around the contestability of the dynamic point-to-point transport market”.

It is hoping that the review will be done quickly, so that it can “continue competing with incumbent transport companies and with new entrants”, the spokesperson added.

News of the extension of the Uber app came hours after Grab’s version suffered its second outage in a week.

Grab’s ride-hailing app was down around lunchtime on Friday, with an error message telling users that the service was experiencing a “technical issue”. Services resumed around 12.40pm.

Earlier on Tuesday night, the app was down for a longer period, affecting commuters and drivers across several South-east Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The company blamed its “underlying infrastructure” for the outage, but did not give specific details.

CONTRACTUAL WOES

Since the merger was announced on March 26, Uber drivers have been trying to grapple with the transition.

On Friday morning, hours before the CCCS announced that Uber’s app will be given a week more to run, dozens of Uber drivers were queuing at Grab’s office at Midview City building in Sin Ming estate.

At 10am, when the counters opened for these drivers to sign up with Grab, a queue had already formed outside the tentage that was set up for the registration.

There were at least an estimated 60 Uber drivers who showed up during the hour that TODAY was there.

Mr Anthony Chin, 58, who had been driving with Uber for a “couple of months” before the merger, said that he has bills to pay, so he has no choice but to sign up with Grab, because he was not sure what other work he can do at his age.

Mr Chin was aware that there has been heated discussion online among private-hire car drivers regarding contractual commitments with Lion City Rentals (LCR), a car rental subsidiary wholly owned by Uber in Singapore.

Grab said last month that drivers who already have contracts with LCR may keep their contract and take Grab bookings, and that once these contracts expire, they can opt to rent a car from GrabRentals.

The biggest grouse among Uber drivers who have LCR contracts is that this arrangement “forces them” to work with Grab, rather than giving them the choice to end their contracts without penalty.

Mr Jordan Tan, 38, who has been driving with Uber for slightly more than a year, said that there would be an early termination fee if he ended his LCR contract early. “We find that it is unfair for us to be charged…as it is not our fault (that this merger happened).”

He did not want to say how much the termination fee would be, only that it could be S$2,000 or more.

“LCR’s (customer service officer) told us we need to pay the remaining rental fees and also the rebates that it had given us previously,” he said.

MORE TIME FOR GRAB, UBER TO ‘ADDRESS ISSUES’

When asked by TODAY if it would help to mediate the situation, the National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA) said that it has already approached “the parties concerned and that they will be looking into it soon”.

“The initial shutdown date of April 8 (being moved) to 15… should give the parties (the) time needed to do more to address issues, and come up with a positive response,” Mr Ang Hin Kee, executive adviser to the NPHVA, said.

“It is indeed a most unprofessional matter left dangling by Uber and LCR in this entire episode… their concern was more with their business plans than those whose efforts put them there in the first place,” Mr Ang added.

Commenting on whether the contracts should be rendered void, Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said: “The contract may still be binding if Grab steps into the shoes of Lion City Rentals. I believe Grab would want that since it bought into Uber’s business here. That is, Grab succeeds LCR as the contracting party.”

TODAY understands that Grab will hold these drivers to their contracts.

For driver Jordan Tan, he would rather bear with the cost of maintaining his rental car than to sign up with Grab, and he claimed that other Uber drivers he knows feel the same way.

Mr Jeremy Goh, who uses the GrabTaxi platform, said that he is frustrated by Grab’s customer service when it came to resolving disputes between drivers and riders. In one incident, his account was suspended when he got agitated with the customer service officer while trying to claim the fare due to him.

Mr Tan also said that he has heard from other drivers how easily their Grab account could be suspended. “As long as someone complains about you, you get banned,” he said.