Yongche is petitioning China’s anti-monopoly authorities to halt the merger of Didi Taxi and Kuaididache, accusing it as a serious breach of the “Anti-monopoly Law”.
It has reported the case to the Ministry of Commerce’s (MOC) National Development and Reform Commission Price Regulation and Anti-monopoly Bureau, requesting an immediate investigation.
Yongche alleged that Kuaididache had failed to declare to anti-trust authorities although revenue from its driver accounts, at RMB4.73 billion or RMB10 million monthly average as reported in its website in March 2014, was above the reporting threshhold stipulated as per Article 21 of the anti-monopoly law.
This unreported merger with Didi Taxi is a violation of the antitrust law.
Yongche has also stated that the Didi Taxi and Kuadidache merger of enables them to corner 90% of the market, resulting in a de facto monopoly in the online taxi service.
Yongche believes the Ministry of Commerce should prohibit the merger and conduct an investigation according to regulations even though the merged company’s concentrated undertakings have not reached the threshold that mandates declaration.
Didi Taxi argued that the merger isn’t required as it hasn’t reached the concentrated undertakings threshold. It also claimed it is actively communicating with relevant government regulatory departments.
MOC spokesperson Danyang Shen confirmed on February 16 that it still had not received a concentrated undertakings threshold declaration from Didi Taxi and Kuadidache.
China’s anti-monopoly law requires declaration with the MOC’s Anti-monopoly Bureau if participants of concentrated operations have total domestic revenues of more than RMB2 billion in the previous fiscal year, or at least two participants had more than RMB400 million in total domestic revenues in the previous fiscal year.(Translation by David)
