Minister of consumer affairs Pralhad Joshi today informed the Parliament that ride-hailing platforms Ola and Uber have denied allegations of differential pricing for Android and iPhone users.
On the current course of the probe into the two companies in connection with the issue, Joshi said that the matter has now been sent to the director general (investigation) of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) for detailed investigation.
“… The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued a letter on 10.1.2025 seeking response from Ola and Uber regarding alleged differential pricing. Ola and Uber have denied the charges. Since both the companies have denied the charges, the matter has been sent to DG (Investigation) for detailed investigation,” said the Minister.
This comes two months after Joshi publicly said that CCPA had issued notices to the two cab aggregators for displaying different fares for identical rides on Android and iOS devices.
He also noted that the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 bar companies from discriminating between the users of the same class or make any arbitrary classification of consumers affecting their consumer rights.
Citing the provisions of the rules, Joshi said that ecommerce platforms are barred from manipulating the price of their goods or services by imposing any unjustified price on the end customer. “These rules also provide that no e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise,” he added.
The reply in the Parliament also noted that the government has taken a slew of steps to strengthen consumer protection including issuing guidelines for prevention of dark patterns and a framework to curb fake and deceptive reviews on ecommerce platforms.
While the CCPA is yet to release its findings, any adverse order could force the two platforms to shell out fines and undertake changes to its operations in the country.
In December last year, news reports flagged alleged disparities in cab fares for identical rides on Android and iPhone smartphones. One report claimed that iOS users were paying higher than Android customers for rides to the same destination from three different locations in Chennai.
Afterwards, a LinkedIn user also claimed that the price for a ride to the same destination was higher on an iPhone than an Android smartphone.
Responding to this, consumer affairs minister Joshi directed the CCPA to probe ride-hailing platforms for the alleged differential pricing tactics. At the time, he even said that charging different fares for identical rides on Android and Apple devices by ride-hailing apps “prima facie” amounted to “unfair trade practice”.
Meanwhile, both Uber and Ola have distanced themselves from the allegations. While Uber India previously said that the “observed fare differences” were due to the type of phone used, Ola claimed that it did not differentiate prices on their platform based on a user’s cellphone.
The development comes at a time when the consumer rights protection body has tightened its whip on tech companies. While Bhavish Aggarwal-led electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric has been under the scanner of CCPA over allegations of delays in providing service and deliveries, the authority, in January, also issued a notice to iPhone maker Apple regarding complaints of performance issues following its iOS 18+ software update.
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