Judgment of Competition by Uber complaint to the taxi

 The Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Competition - a decentralized body of the Ministry of Economy and Finance - ruled on the complaint made by Uber Technologies Uruguay S.A. (Uber) to the Car Owner's Center with Taximeter (Cpatu) on March 28, 2016.

There, Uber reported that Cpatu registered the "Uber brand" in an attempt to "unjustifiably impede access to the market of potential entrants to it", a practice prohibited by the Law of Promotion and Defense of Competition. He also denounced the "irruption in the training of drivers of Uber by organized members of the taxi union denounced in these works" to the same end indicated the resolution of the commission.

The MEF body commissioned an economic and a legal report. The economic "is pronounced by the illegality of the registration of the Uber brand by Cpatu" as well as "the act of breaking into the training of drivers Uber" by understanding that seeks to "unreasonably impede access to the market of incoming potential the same".

The legal report, meanwhile, establishes "the absence of illegalities" on the part of Cpatu, since it maintains that as far as the registration of mark, the commission does not have authority and also that "the irruption in the trainings of drivers is foreign matter" of the organ.

The Commission disagrees with the legal report regarding its power, according to the resolution.

The Commission ruled that "notwithstanding the foregoing, there is no evidence of record that such a registration has constituted a barrier to entry either from the qualitative or quantitative point of view, since there is no evidence that it has been possible limit the activity in our country, or affected competition in the market or is potentially capable of affecting it. "

"The Commission also shares the legal opinion" with regard to the break in Uber's training that "this practice does not constitute an anti-competitive practice".

In turn, the body analyzed the possible "cartelization" of the taxi, as the Executive Branch sets a maximum rate and then all charge that rate, without competing for price. "The Commission understands that it is not possible to confirm this behavior", as the economic report pointed out, since "it is the regulation of this market itself that does not create incentives for competition" for prices.