Cabcharge acquisition fare game

Cabcharge Australia has been granted its proposed aquisition of Mobile Technologies International.

MTI, the primary provider of taxi dispatch systems across Australia’s taxi network, will be allowed to be taken over by Cabcharge.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it is “unlikely” the $6.6 million buy-out would see Cabcharge supply inferior systems and technology products to competitor taxi networks.

The regulator was also initially concerned Cabcharge would access booking and dispatch information from those rival operator networks using the MTI systems to an unfair advantage.

According to the ACCC’s competition analysis, it does not see “horizontal overlap” between Cabcharge and MTI, with the former supplying the transport service and the latter providing the technical dispatch systems. The ACCC also notes the alternative suppliers of dispatch systems in Australia, and also does not consider it likely Cabcharge would “engage in anti-competitive bundling, as this would risk degrading its payment processing business”.

The ACCC says cab operators often have multiple payment terminals installed in their taxis, and don’t need to strictly process fare payments through Cabcharge.

“Alternative dispatch system providers are available in Australia and the threat of network switching is likely to provide sufficient constraint on Cabcharge,” chairman Rod Sims says.

“Cabcharge is unlikely to be able to substantially lessen competition through any use of the data. Because of the threat of networks switching to alternative providers, we consider Cabcharge is unlikely to use the data to harm its competitors,” he explains.

“It is unlikely that Cabcharge would engage in anti-competitive bundling… (and) drivers generally have another payment terminal available in their vehicles,” Sims adds.