Ola’s Convenience Fee For Prime Play Cabs Under Scrutiny As Karnataka Government Calls It Illegal 

The Karnataka government is planning to order cab aggregator Ola to withdraw the convenience charge for its Prime Play cabs and termed it as a “violation” of the law, the Economic Times reports.

“Both the Motor Vehicles Act and the Karnataka On-demand, Transportation Technology Cab Aggregators Rules, do not allow convenience charges. It’s a clear violation,” transport commissioner VP Ikkeri said while adding the department would act customers file a complaint.

The transport department in the state also said the Ola has “no right to charge passengers anything other than the transportation fee.” Ola Play was launched in 2016 as a value-added service, and the cab aggregator started to charge for it from 2018-end.

Department’s secretary, Narendra Holkar, said, “Operators can provide value-added services such as music or videos, but that should be free of cost. We will write to Ola, asking them to stop such charges.”

With more than 60,000 cabs in the city attached to either Ola or Uber, Bengaluru is Ola’s largest market. The transport department does not have a tally on cabs under Ola Prime Play yet.