【英语财经】印度市场遇阻 优步与竞争对手对簿公堂 Uber accuses India rival of dirty tricks

The race to dominate India’s taxi market has taken a bitter turn with Uber of the US accusing a local rival, OlaCab, of using dirty tricks to disrupt its business.

In a lawsuit filed in the Delhi High Court, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing app alleges that Ola employees made more than 400,000 false bookings, summoning Uber drivers to fetch passengers who never materialised. To do so they created 93,000 fake rider accounts, the complaint alleges.

Uber, which has invested $1bn in India over the past nine months, says the bookings cost it nearly $8,000 in cancellation fees to frustrated drivers.

The fake bookings were “intended to block the availability of taxis” and divert business to Ola, resulting in lost revenues to Uber and its drivers, and “frustrating?.?.?.?and scaring” them, the petition claims.

Uber has sought $7.4m in damages from Ola for “deliberately, unlawfully, wrongfully, maliciously, falsely?.?.?.?interfering” in its business.

Ola, which is based in Bangalore, said in a statement the charges were “false and frivolous”. It did not use dirty tricks, it said. “We are categorically denying it.”

But yesterday Jugnoo, a Chandigarh-based company whose tech platform matches autorickshaws with passengers, made allegations against Ola. Samar Singla, co-founder and chief executive, said Jugnoo had received a surge of 20,000 bookings from 800 fake accounts, leading to a waste of time and lost earnings for rickshaw drivers.

The company found that nearly all the bookings had come from close to Ola offices — two in the greater Delhi area and one in south India.

“We are planning to take suitable action against Ola for the same, but will refrain from doing so if they cease to do this,” Mr Singla said in a statement.

Allegations of dirty tricks highlight the rising stakes for Uber, Ola and other transport providers in India, where just 6 per cent of households own a car .

Uber and Ola are competing fiercely for customers and drivers, many of whom are enrolled on both platforms.

In its court petition Uber said some of the fake bookings appeared intended to obtain the contact details of its “driver-partners”, who then received “malicious” phone calls and text messages.

More than 23,000 Indian drivers had left its platform from September to February as a result of harassment, it said. Some email addresses used to set up fake accounts appeared to belong to Ola employees, while many bookings were from the area around Ola offices.

主宰印度出租车市场的竞赛发生敌意转折，来自美国的优步(Uber)指控当地竞争对手OlaCab用卑鄙手段扰乱其业务。

总部位于旧金山的打车应用优步在德里高等法院提起诉讼，声称Ola雇员发出逾40万张假订单，召唤优步司机搭载根本不存在的乘客。起诉状称，为此他们注册了9.3万个虚假乘客账户。

过去九个月里在印度投资10亿美元的优步表示，上述假订单导致它向烦恼的司机支付近8000美元取消费。

这些假订单“意在封锁出租车供应”，使业务分流至Ola，这种行为给优步及其司机带来营收损失，并导致后者“烦恼……以及惧怕”。

优步请求法庭命令Ola支付740万美元损害赔偿金，以赔偿其对优步业务的“故意、非法、不当、恶意、虚假……干扰”。

总部设在班加罗尔的Ola在一份声明中表示，优步的指控是“虚假和琐碎的”。声明称，该公司从未使用卑鄙手段。“我们断然否认这一点。”

但在昨日，总部位于昌迪加尔(Chandigarh)、利用技术平台在摩托三轮车与乘客之间牵线搭桥的Jugnoo公司也对Ola提出指控。Jugnoo的联合创始人和首席执行官萨马?辛拉(Samar Singla)表示，该公司从800个假账户接到了蜂拥而来的2万张订单，导致摩托车司机浪费了时间，损失了收入。

该公司发现，几乎所有订单都来自靠近Ola办事处的地方：两个在大德里地区，还有一个在印度南部。

“我们正计划就此对Ola采取合适行动，但如果他们停止此类行为，我们将避免走出这一步，”辛拉在一份声明中表示。

有关下三滥手段的指控，突显印度市场的得失对优步、Ola和其他运输提供商越来越事关重大。印度只有6%的家庭保有汽车。

优步和Ola正在激烈竞争客户和司机，很多人在这两个平台上都注册了。

优步在向法庭提交的诉状中表示，一些假订单似乎意在获取其合作司机的联系资料，这些司机随后接到“恶意”的电话和短信。

优步称，这些骚扰导致去年9月至今年2月期间，逾2.3万名印度司机告别其平台。用于注册假账户的一些电子邮件地址似乎属于Ola雇员，同时许多假订单发自Ola办事处周围地区。

译者/和风