Ola and Uber have come under fire from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) for what the consumers have been complaining about all along, namely unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights. In a notice issued to the ride-hailing platforms, the CCPA slammed them over deficiency in service, unreasonable levy of cancellation charges, lack of fairness of algorithm used to charge fares, and over and above absence of a proper consumer grievance redressal mechanism.
Going by the data made available by the National Consumer Helpline (NCH), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said in a statement that as many as 2,482 grievances were registered against Ola and 770 grievances against Uber in the month of April by consumers.
Only last week, the CCPA, under its Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare, had served an ultimatum on both the ride-hailing platforms to either resolve growing consumer complaints or face penal action. The complaints pertain to ride cancellations, cancellation charges, random surge pricing, and long waiting times.
In a meeting with ride-hailing companies Ola, Uber, Rapido, Meru Cabs, and Jugnoo, the Department of Consumer Affairs directed them to become convergence partners in the National Consumer Helpline for better grievance redressal for consumers and also compliance with Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and E-commerce Rules.
The notice issued by the regulator makes a special mention of an unreasonable levy of cancellation charge wherein users are not shown the amount of time within which canceling a ride is permitted.
The regulator observed, “The amount of cancellation charge is not displayed prominently on the platform before booking the ride. Undue cancellation charges are borne by users when they are forced to cancel the ride due to unwillingness of the driver to accept the ride or come at the pick-up location.”
The notice raised the primary issues of deficiency in service including lack of proper response from customer support, driver refusing to take payment by online mode and insisting on cash payment only, higher amount charged despite going on the same route previously at a lesser charge, unprofessional driver behaviour and driver refusing to switch on AC when the consumer is promised AC ride on the app.

The CCPA also raised inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism in the absence of both customer care number and details of grievance officer as required to be mentioned on the ride-hailing platforms. There is also a lack of any information on the algorithm or method used by the company to charge different fares for the same route from two individuals.
“It may be mentioned that a significant number of complaints have been lodged by consumers across the country on multiple issues which affect their rides booked through both the ride-hailing platforms,” the ministry said.
Uber India’s Director of Central Operations Nitish Bhushan, on Thursday, said that the company is “reinforcing service quality expectations with drivers, especially in areas like cancellations and ensuring AC rides”.
“In addition to driver notifications and training, repeated complaints from riders on these service quality essentials could lead to penalties and even restricted app access,” Bhushan added.
However, he did not come up with any information about the penal action the company has initiated against 770 grievances registered against the errant drivers of the Uber in the month of April via the National Consumer Helpline, like paid amount not refunded, unauthorised charges, charging more than MRP, among others.
Meanwhile, the Department of Consumer Affairs is set to issue new guidelines related to surge pricing and ride cancellations by ride-hailing platforms soon that will give some reprieve to the end-users. CCPA’s head Khare had given the ride-hailing platforms 30 days to fix their algorithms related to ride cancellations and surge pricing, or else they will be penalised.