Unfair trade practice: Govt notices to Ola, Uber on differential pricing

The Department of Consumer Affairs through the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued notices to ride-hailing aggregator platforms Ola and Uber, seeking their responses on the issue of differential pricing.

"As a follow-up to the earlier observation of apparent #DifferentialPricing based on the different models of mobiles (#iPhones/ #Android) being used, Department of Consumer Affairs through the CCPA, has issued notices to major cab aggregators #Ola and #Uber, seeking their responses," Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi said in a post on X.

Besides, the government has also issued a notice to tech major Apple regarding the performance issue with iPhones after the iOS 18+ update. "After receiving complaints on the National Consumer Helpline regarding performance issues in iPhones following the iOS 18+ software update, the department, after examining these grievances, has issued a notice to Apple through the CCPA, seeking a response on the matter," says the minister.

The Union minister last month had warned the companies on differential pricing, saying that the government has a "zero tolerance" policy for "customer exploitation" by companies.

The minister last month had said that this prima facie looks like "unfair trade practice", where the cab-aggregators are alleged to be using differential pricing. "If so, this is blatant disregard to consumer’s right to know. I have directed @jagograhakjago through CCPA to conduct a detailed inquiry into this and submit a report at the earliest. Have asked the department to look into other sectors as well like, food delivery apps, online ticket booking apps etc," he said.

Notably, social media is abuzz with videos of users sharing differential pricing on the ride-hailing apps for the same route on Android and iOS smartphones.

Social media platforms like X and YouTube are filled with videos of users getting charged higher for iPhones as compared to Android for the same route. Some are saying that this practice is prevalent across e-commerce ecosystem. In the wake of these pricing discrepancies, the government has issued notices over the issue.