MANILA - The country's antitrust body on Friday allowed ride-hailing firm Grab's acquisition of Uber on several conditions.

Grab can push through with its deal with Uber as long as it improves service, lowers cancellation rates and makes surge fares justifiable.

The company should also "ensure that the quality of service and pricing of Grab is not unreasonably different before and after it acquired its competitor Uber," the Philippine Competition Commission said.

PCC allows Grab-Uber union with conditions. PCC says Grab must ensure the riding public enjoy better service, lower costs, lower cancellations rates. Will charge PCC P2M per violation. @ANCALERTS @ABSCBNNews pic.twitter.com/sgh4ZzJEdI

— Warren de Guzman (@wddeguzman) August 10, 2018

Grab should "commit to bring back market averages" for acceptance, cancellation rates and the response time to complaints before the deal, according to the PCC ruling.

It will also revise its receipt to show fare breakdown including surges and the per-minute charge if reinstated by the Land Franchising and Regulatory Board, it said.

There should not be any "extraordinary deviation" from the minimum fares, or not more than 22 percent from where it was a year before the evaluation period, it said.

Grab could be penalized equivalent to 5 percent of its commissions or up to P2 million in case of "extraordinary deviation" from fares that are unjustified, it said.

Grab drew flak for surges in fares and excessive driver cancellation rates after it took over the operations of Uber raising anti-competition concerns.

• LTFRB penalizes Grab, orders reimbursement for P2 per-minute charge