Auto-rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo on Wednesday threatened to take legal action against Ola and accused the cab-hailing firm of trying to hurt its business, a day after Uber Technologies Inc dragged its main Indian competitor to court after making similar allegations.
“We have evidence to support our claims. We are planning to take suitable legal action against Ola but will refrain from doing so if they cease to do this,†Samar Singla, co-founder and CEO at Jugnoo, told Techcircle.in.
Jugnoo claims about 20,000 cancellations were made through 800 fake accounts being used by Ola employees in the last 10 days. The accounts had been used to book a Jugnoo ride and then cancel it after some time, at times even switching off the phone after booking the ride.
“We witnessed this trend almost 10 days ago 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,†Singla said. He added that the activity was particularly high in Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore.
Singla on March 14 had also tweeted that Ola employees were requesting and cancelling rides on Jugnoo.
Ola had not responded to that tweet. The company didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Jugnoo is the second company to accuse Ola of unethical business practices. US-based ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has already approached the Delhi High Court alleging that Ola, operated by ANI Technologies, created 93,000 fake accounts to book rides and then cancel them. Uber said over four lakh bookings had been made and cancelled by Ola employees across the country, with about 50,000 such incidents in Delhi alone from last August till March.