Antitrust Advisory advises on an unprecedented deal involving the merger of Yandex.Taxi and Uber in Russia and the CIS countries

23.12.2017

Antitrust Advisory has acted as coordinating advisor on antitrust issues for Yandex in relation to the merger of Yandex.Taxi and Uber in Russia and the CIS.

As a result of the deal, Yandex gained control over the joint venture, while clients will continue to use both applications, and for drivers the two services will be combined. The parties also concluded an agreement on international roaming which will allow users of the Yandex.Taxi app to use Uber anywhere worldwide the service is available.

The deal had to be cleared by antitrust regulators in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. The matter included an in-depth economic analysis. In obtaining clearance of the merger, new approaches to the functioning of high-tech markets were taken which had not previously been used by the FAS of Russia.

The deal was one of the largest M&A transactions in Russia in 2017 (the merged business is valued at $3.725 billion) and was named 2017 Deal of the Year in Russia by Forbes.