Uber in mid-May this yearAnnounceRegarding the acquisition of Foodpanda's Taiwan food delivery business, the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission made a decision earlier, believing that the merger of the two major food delivery platform services will increase its market share to more than 90%. In addition, Uber Eats is not subject to competition restrictions. Therefore, it is believed that the impact on market competition is far greater than the benefits it brings, and therefore it is not appropriate to approve its merger proposal.
The Fair Trade Commission stated that Uber and Delivery Hero signed a share acquisition agreement, whereby Uber and Uber Portier BV acquired all shares of Delivery Hero's foodpanda and Dilifu Hero Mall. This actually meets the requirements of Article 10, Paragraph 1, Clauses 2 and 5 of the Fair Trade Act. However, considering that the merger of the two businesses has obvious concerns about affecting market competition and will significantly reduce the competitiveness of other similar services in Taiwan, the Fair Trade Commission refused to approve the merger proposal.
The Fair Trade Commission received opinions from scholars, experts, consumer protection groups, restaurants, and delivery drivers, and collected information on price increases from consumers and restaurants through market questionnaires. It also conducted hypothetical monopoly tests and critical loss analyses, and believed that if Uber Eats and Foodpanda Taiwan merge, Uber Eats would be left without competitors. At the same time, it would be difficult for consumers or small and medium-sized restaurant operators to counterbalance Uber Eats' services through other delivery platforms through their own delivery services.
Furthermore, even if Uber Eats emphasizes increasing the density of its delivery network and improving delivery efficiency, the actual benefits would be far less than the impact of unrestricted market competition. The Fair Trading Commission believes that Uber Eats' commitments may only be short-term adjustments that could make it difficult to re-establish the previously maintained competitive balance, and it is also difficult to verify the benefits that Uber Eats' commitments can achieve.
As for Delivery Hero, which originally intended to resell its foodpanda business to Uber due to the Fair Trade Commission's obstruction, it may decide to withdraw its foodpanda business from the Taiwanese market.
