Russian Watchdog Warns Of Competition Concerns In New Taxi Deal

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced on Tuesday, March 30, a deal between Yandex.Taxi, a ride-hailing service, a subsidiary of Russian internet group Yandex, and a taxi firm called Vezet could have a negative effect on competition on the taxi market.

Yandex.Taxi announced last month the acquisition of selected assets of Vezet to ramp up development of logistics services and enhance customer cases across Russian regions.

FAS said the deal did not require its approval as assets Yandex.Taxi was acquiring were worth less than 400 million roubles (US$5.27 million). 

Yandex.Taxi and Uber announced earlier that the companies agreed to combine their taxi businesses in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, and Kazakhstan.

According to the report from Yandex, both Yandex.Taxi and Uber app will operate as before, driver apps, on the other hand, will be transitioned to a unified platform. “This combined driver platform will significantly increase the number of available cars, reduce passenger wait time, and boost vehicle utilization. Drivers will be able to perform more trips per hour while passengers will continue to enjoy affordable prices,” the company stated.

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