In a pivotal turn of events, the Indian government is finding itself opposing Uber. The authorities are saying Uber and other local ridesharing platforms are charging customers more if they use iPhones.
Ola Consumer is not worldwide, rather a transportation company operating solely in India, providing ride-hailing services and operating other business verticals, such as financial services and cloud kitchens. It is headquartered in Bangalore, and is operating in over 250 cities in India.
Now, the government of India has ordered an investigation into whether the allegations are correct, following consumer complaints about the practice of “differential pricing,” or charging more depending on the perceived ability of the user to pay. This issue has erupted in 2024.
Pralhad Joshi, the consumer affairs minister, has been caught in the debate wind about differential pricing. Joshi, in January, ordered the Central Consumer Protection Authority to ask Uber and Ola Consumer if they are doing this.
Just within days after the formal complaint has been filed, Uber told Reuters it is not doing this. So, Joshi updated India’s parliament that the ridesharing parties have responded to the probe, denying their use of differential pricing.
However, Joshi was not satisfied and moved forward to investigate further. However, the consumer affairs minister has not clarified why they were not satisfied with the denying claims from Uber and Ola.
Here’s the take from this forum. Even if ridesharing companies are charging iPhone users more, it is not impacting Indian citizens at a great scale since feature phones and low-cost Android handsets are what dominate the local market.
Also, Apple devices are too expensive for most Indians, so if it is indeed real that iPhone users are being charged more, only a small portion of the population will get affected.
So, if ridesharing platforms are making iPhone users pay more, they are only targeting the wealthiest citizens of India, and only some of them. This may be why the consumer affairs minister wants to get to the meat of this.
Here is how Uber India fares recently. In 2024, 9.2 billion kilometers were traveled by the riders on the platform.
Overall, Uber has generated around $43 billion in revenue in 2024, which is an 18 percent increase over the past year. It also made $25 billion in revenue from taxis, while $13.7 billion from delivery, financial experts said. The rest came from freight. The United States was responsible for $24.7 billion of Uber’s revenue, with $10.1 billion from Europe.
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