Yandex Taxi contributed around $6.5 million to Kazakhstan’s state fund following antitrust investigation

The agency completed an antitrust investigation into the service and, as a result, assigned the company administrative responsibility “for the coordination of the economic activities of taxi companies, expressed in the imposition of technical support services for cash register software” .

Yandex Taxi also took administrative responsibility for failing to provide information to the antitrust authority.

It is reported that as a result of the investigation, the company voluntarily contributed 3 billion tenge to the state fund to support Kazakhstan’s digital ecosystem. AZRK also agreed to compliance with antitrust rules by Yandex Taxi, which provides for a set of measures.

These include the elimination from December 14 of the Yandex commission charge if the order exceeds twice the base cost of the trip (the economic effect is estimated at 2 billion tenge per year); restrictions on increasing the fare above x3 in conditions of maximum demand for taxi services and other measures.

AZRK also initiated amendments to the legislation that will allow drivers to work directly with Yandex without taxi companies (the commission of taxi companies is reported to be 4-8%).

Additionally, an independent IT audit company, together with AZRK, the Ministry of Digital Development and Aerospace Industry, will conduct an audit of algorithmic pricing.

• In February 2023, AZRK drafted an administrative violation report against Yandex.Taxi; The company did not provide information for the antitrust investigation. The agency previously concluded that the service significantly controls and influences the overall conditions of services in the market.
• At the end of November, Yandex.Taxi also recognized FAS as the dominant service in the Russian market.