Romanian taxi operators fined for colluding to block competing app at Otopeni Airport
The Competition Council announced on Wednesday, May 27, that it sanctioned the Confederation of Authorized Operators and Transporters in Romania (COTAR), the Federation of Romanian Transport Operators (FORT), and 18 taxi companies with fines totaling nearly RON 4 million (EUR 780,000) after they collectively agreed to remove an IT application for taxi orders from Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport.
Specifically, the 18 taxi companies and the two transport associations “coordinated their behavior” to eliminate the company Clever Tech SRL from the airport premises, which managed an aggregator application that included offers from several taxi drivers, according to the Competition Council.
The taxi companies and their associations had previously asked the company that manages the airport to remove the Clever aggregator app from the touch-screen terminals through which taxis can be ordered inside the airport.
The sanctioned taxi companies were Cristaxi Service SRL, Auto Cobălcescu SRL, Meridian Taxi SRL, As Taxi 2003 SRL, Compania de Taximetrie Speed Taxi SRL, D`Artex Star SRL, Autogeneral SA, Lion Quick Taxi SRL, Street Taxi SRL, Simbol Fly Consulting SRL, Speed Taxi SRL, Bageti Star SRL, Dinamic Taxi SRL, Dispecerat Perfect SRL, Fast Transport Auto SRL, Grand Auto Taxi SRL, Grant Taxi Service SRL, and Grant Taxi Speed SRL.
FORT, Auto Cobălcescu SRL, Meridian Taxi SRL, Cristaxi Service SRL, and Grand Auto Taxi SRL acknowledged this practice, according to the authority.
At the same time, the competition authority imposed several conditions on the National Company Bucharest Airports (CNAB), which manages the Otopeni Airport, aimed at ensuring access inside the airport for all interested taxi companies. CNAB committed to a series of measures aimed at identifying and renting spaces for the placement of touch-screen terminals without intervening in the types of applications running on them.
In addition, CNAB will allow passenger transport services from the airport to operate via aggregator and ride-sharing applications, without being limited exclusively to taxi transport or to taxi companies' IT applications.
Finally, the rental of spaces for placing touch-screen terminals will be awarded exclusively through an open auction organized by the Romanian Commodities Exchange, and interested companies will be able to submit offers for several spaces, but they will be awarded only one space within the same auction procedure, to ensure the broadest possible presence of companies active on the market and diversified services for passengers.
(Photo source: Angel Luis Martin Ojeda|Dreamstime.com)
