Grab mulls libel case vs Micab exec for ‘phantom bookings’ claim

Grab Philippines is thinking of filing a libel suit against Micab CEO Eddie Ybañez over his claims that the leading transport network vehicle service (TNVS) in the country was behind so called “phantom bookings.”

Grab country head Brian Cu said they conducted an internal investigation and “[we] can confirm that Eddie Ybanez’s allegations are untrue and appears to have malicious intent.”

“Grab did the responsible thing in taking the time to investigate, and we encourage Eddie Ybañez to be similarly responsible in his speech and actions,” Cu said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Cu argued that Grab did not have 15,000 bookings per day, contrary to the claim of Ybañez.

He also denied that the company was making calls to Micab drivers and then asking them to transfer to Grab.

“If he continues to make further false allegations, we will have to consider taking libel actions,” Cu said.

Ybañez earlier claimed that Grab allegedly created accounts in the Micab platform in order to cause a “firestorm of phantom bookings” that would later be canceled.

“Our taxi-hailing platform, Micab, which competes directly with Grab’s GrabTaxi and indirectly with their private car hailing services, has also been hit with a firestorm of phantom bookings, albeit with a slightly different modus operandi: After booking one of our cabs, then waiting as usual before canceling, our drivers will receive a call a few minutes later inviting them to a driver’s orientation for Grab,” Ybañez wrote in an op-ed post.

Ybañez asserted that those incidents of phantom bookings could not be considered as mere coincidence given that it happened a lot of times. /kga