App-based taxi service Uber has taken its rival Ola to court alleging loss in business due to creation of fake rider accounts only to cancel them at the last minute causing a financial loss of Rs 49 crore. Uber has filed a case against Ola in the Delhi High Court. The Delhi HC has sought reply from Ola in next two weeks. In an official statement, Ola, however, denied the allegations terming them as "frivolous" and "false".
According to news reports, lawyers appearing for Uber have told the court that Ola interfered with Uber's technical platforms by creating over 90,000 false rider accounts with untraceable mobile numbers, false rider details all across the country. In its petition, Uber said that cancellations were made across the country in the cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Guwahati and Bengaluru between August 3, 2015 and March 10, 2016. It alleged that the fake accounts were created by its own employees, officers and the agents. Uber also told the court that the act prevented its drivers from taking genuine bookings and also cause loss of goodwill.
It should be noted that both Uber and Ola have been at loggerheads for marketshare and business in most of the cities they operate in. Apart from taking each other on, both App-based cab operators have also been involved in legal tussle with the government agencies. As a result of their earlier court battle, all diesel-operated cabs in Delhi NCR will not be able to operate after March 31, 2016, according to an earlier court order. While riders are getting access to cabs and cost-effective rides, in some instances, for the two operators, doing business in the same geography has been causing unrest among drivers and passengers.
Recently, Uber and Ola both launched bike taxis. While Uber announced their bike taxi feature in a blog post by its India's president Amit Jain, Ola cabs also announced their bike service on the same day. Uber had first launched UberMoto in Bangkok last month. Uber said the offering is ideal for the short rides where the rates have been kept at Rs 3 per km while the base fare has been kept at Rs 15. Like cabs, there is a per minute charge of Rs 1 for the bike taxis as well. But Ola seems to have bettered the rates by announcing Rs 2 per km, as the charges while hiking the base fare to Rs 30 instead of Rs 15 being charged by Uber.
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
