MANILA — Grab Philippines said it welcomed the decision of the Philippine Competition Commission on the mechanism for refunding excess charges to its customers but the company was surprised with the accompanying fine.

The PCC on Monday said it imposed a P9 million fine on Grab for failure to initiate the ordered refund for over 3 years.

A P6 million fine was imposed in a Resolution last Feb. 2 "for violating three separate Commission orders for the company to return a combined P25.45 million to its customers. The refund orders were issued after Grab failed to deliver on its Price Monitoring Commitment."

Another P3 million fine was imposed " for providing incorrect and misleading information in the compliance reports that the company submitted with respect to the refund orders. In those reports, Grab claimed that it had completed the refund," the agency added.

• Antitrust body tells Grab to release unclaimed refunds sans conditions

This is on top of the P63.7 million in penalties the anti-trust watchdog has imposed on Grab since it acquired Uber in 2018.

In a statement, Grab said “We are glad that the PCC has finally come to a decision on the disbursement mechanism for the remaining administrative fees - so we can put this matter to rest. At the same time, we are surprised at PCC's decision to fine us - given that we've been proactively engaging with them for over a year with proposals for alternative mechanisms to disburse the remaining administrative fees.

It said it is committed to "fully depleting" the unclaimed admin fees.

"We proposed alternative disbursement mechanisms and are surprised that the PCC made a decision in February 2023 without informing us - given that we’ve been regularly following up with them. Nevertheless, we will implement the order of the PCC for Alternative Refund Mechanism as required by the PCC Order," Grab said.

Grab Philippines said it would evaluate legal options regarding the P9 million find.

• Cakes, flowers among Pinoys' top Mother's Day purchases: Grab report
• Grab's acquisition of Move It does not need approval: antitrust body

Watch more News on iWantTFC