#Asia Car Wars: After Uber, Jugnoo accuses Ola of using murky tactics to hurt its business

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Jugnoo alleges that Ola employees created fake accounts to book and make cancellations on Jugnoo’s app, leading to loss of revenue for the firm

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It’s raining controversies in the online taxi-aggregation industry in India.

Less than 48 hours after San Francisco-based Uber filed a law suit with the Delhi High Court against close rival Ola over allegations of using dirty tactics to hurt its business, Chandigarh-based auto rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo has threatened to take legal action against the Mumbai-based company for “employing unethical practices to sabotage their business”.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Jugnoo accused Ola of employing unethical practices to sabotage its business and aggravate the drivers who are trying to earn a decent living by plying auto rickshaws.

According to this statement, Ola employees have been creating fake accounts over the last 10 days to book and make cancellations on Jugnoo’s app, leading not only to loss of revenue but affecting the auto-rickshaw drivers’ income and bonus on daily basis.OLA heat map

“We witnessed this trend almost 10 days back when all of a sudden there was a surge in booking and the cancellation rate was equally high. We started mapping the areas where the bookings were being made from and invariably pointed at places close to Ola’s office premise,” Samar Singla, Co-founder and CEO of Jugnoo, said.

Also Read: With Uber off the auto rickshaw wheel, Jugnoo takes the driving seat in India

“We noticed this across three locations Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore where this activity was highly being employed. We have evidence to support our claims and will be more than happy to furnish the details if required. We are planning to take suitable legal action against Ola for the same but will refrain from doing so if they cease to do this,” he added.

According to Jugnoo, about 20,000 cancellations through 800 fake accounts were reported over the past 10 days. These accounts are being used to book a Jugnoo ride and then cancel it after a while, sometimes switching off the phone after booking the ride. This is keeping the drivers engaged unnecessarily, wasting their time and not letting the genuine customers book their ride — eventually causing a massive driver grievance.

Recently, Uber dragged Ola into the court over allegations of creating 93,000 fake accounts to book rides and then cancel them. Uber claims over 400,000 bookings were made and cancelled by Ola employees across the country, with about 50,000 such incidents in Delhi alone from last August till March.

Jugnoo was established in 2014 by Singla and Chinmay Agarwal. The startup claims that more than 9000 autos empanelled under its brand at present, and over 30,000 people transact on its app everyday.

In january this year, Jugnoo raised US$2.5 million in Series B funding from Paytm and Snow Leopard Ventures

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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