‘Licensed’ Cab Aggregator Ola Declares War Against ‘Foreign’ Company Uber; Accuses Them Of Breaking Indian Laws

In school, when a teacher asks everyone in the class to submit their homework, and then there is only one student who has actually completed it; then that student suddenly becomes the default class monitor. He makes fun of the other poor souls who couldn’t complete their homework and accuses all of being lazy and incompetent.

Something similar is happening within online cab aggregators in India as rivalry between Uber and Ola has reached a new milestone; which is no doubt quite amusing to say the least.

After Govt. of Karnataka made Ola as India’s first licensed cab aggregator, they have relaunched their battle against Uber with a new found energy and enthusiasm; just like that school kid who is trying to become the class monitor after submitting his homework.

The war cry has been raised by Ola, this time taking into account the factors of ‘nationalism’ as Uber has suddenly become that ‘foreign company’ which is breaking Indian laws. It seems Ola wants to permanently oust Uber and dominate the market completely; but their approach seems all wrong.

In a fresh affidavit filed in Karnataka High Court, Ola has challenged Uber’s petition against new laws by Karnataka traffic police against taxi aggregators, stating, Uber’s petition is “motivated and has been filed in an attempt to bypass the laws of the land by foreign companies who run their operations in this country for profit without due regard for the applicable laws.”

In that lengthy affidavit, Ola hasn’t failed to mention that Karnataka Govt. has issued license to them because they are the only cab aggregator to meet all regulations and requirements of the new ‘Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules 2016’

Ola has said that Uber is demonstrating “complete lack of business ethics” as they are offering white-board (non-passenger) vehicles to their customers which is “breaking the laws of the state”. Besides, the affidavit also mentioned the fact that Uber is offering private vehicles under Uber-pool scheme, which doesn’t have “valid contract carriage permit” to operate.

Note here, that before being granted license, Karnataka Govt. had banned both Uber and Ola from operating in the state due to same very reasons. Both UberMoto and Ola Bike Taxis were seized prior to this.

Ola blatantly accessed Uber by stating, “Uber India has intentionally failed to comply with the laws of the land and is responsible for multiple violations in several jurisdictions,”

Supporting Karnataka Govt. (ironically!), Ola said that the Govt. had framed the rules “to promote and ensure the safety of the user-riders availing the services of aggregators… The rules emphasize the need to provide safety and security to the user-riders.”

Few days back, Uber had launched a price war by announcing Rs 6/km tariff to match Ola Micro’s rates; and this can be one of the reasons for this fresh affidavit against them. Besides, this fresh salvo can be related with the ongoing legal battle between these two taxi app companies as well.

Uber has refused to comment on the matter as of now.