Malaysia's competition regulator to decide on ride-hailing firm Grab on Thursday

[October 02, 2019]  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's Competition Commission (MyCC) said it will announce its decision on Thursday after investigating whether ride-hailing firm Grab is anti-competitive.

A Grab logo is pictured at the Money 20/20 Asia Fintech Trade Show in Singapore March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Anshuman Daga/File Photo

The regulator said last year it would monitor Grab for possible anti-competitive behavior after its acquisition of close rival Uber Technologies Inc's Southeast Asian business in March last year.

Bloomberg reported last week that the competition watchdog's chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail said the commission was stepping up that investigation following multiple complaints about monopolistic practices since last year.

Singapore-based ride-hailing Grab responded saying it had cooperated with MyCC and was not informed of any regulation breaches since buying its rival.

Last September, Singapore fined both Grab and Uber a total of S$13 million and imposed other measures to address competition concerns. The Philippines fined them 16 million pesos a month later, saying the firms violated the conditions set by its competition regulator.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, editing by Louise Heavens and Elaine Hardcastle)

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