The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has serious comments on "Yandex.Taxi" concerning overpricing of rides and the blocking of drivers and passengers. This was stated by Pyotr Ivanov, deputy head of the agency, in an interview with Izvestia.
In 2023, the service received more than 300 complaints from both passengers and drivers of Yandex.Taxi, but due to the moratorium on inspections of IT companies in place until the end of 2024, FAS is currently unable to apply response measures.
Ivanov noted:
"The pricing algorithm is also not fully disclosed by the company. We are currently continuing to analyze the pricing practices of cab aggregators, on which the service has serious comments on Yandex.Taxi."
On the issue of blocking measures the aggregator applies, FAS sent a letter to the company with a request to specify in the documents possible violations and commensurate with them measures of responsibility. However, Yandex.Taxi never fully complied with the service's requirements.
In addition, the FAS called for the commission for drivers to be reduced "to a competitive level". Now it is about 28%, which, according to the service, is too high a fee. The aggregator has not yet fulfilled this demand of the FAS.
Earlier, the service has repeatedly reported on the presence of the aggregator's dominant position. The service was recognized as dominant back in 2021. The service also noted that abuse of dominant position may become a reason for conducting an inspection and taking antimonopoly response measures, but currently the FAS's ability to respond is limited.
Source: Vedomosti
