BarcelonaThe shared motorcycle business, or motosharinghas experienced a boom in Barcelona since it was first implemented in the city in 2016. And today, six years later, the sector is living an open war.
The first company to put electric motorcycles to share in the Catalan capital was Cooltra, and its success caused a whole crowd of companies to follow in its footsteps. In 2020, just before the pandemic, Barcelona City Council tried to bring order and made a controversial decision: to establish a maximum number of licenses for the motosharing (almost 7,000) and distribute them to 21 companies equally, equivalent to only 331 motorcycles per company. Large operators, such as Cooltra itself, raised their voices, assuring that with so few vehicles it was unfeasible for the business to be profitable.
A few months later, and already in the midst of a pandemic, the number of companies dropped to 12: two resigned and seven did not submit enough documentation to prove that they met the requirements. This left about 3,000 licenses unallocated, so the council decided to distribute them among the 12 companies that had met the conditions. Each of these operators, therefore, now had 580 licenses.
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Companies currently offer the ‘motosharing’ service, far from the 21 that seemed to be there initially and the 12 that were finally awarded the service
But the problem did not end here. Some operators are convinced that there have been irregularities: from the beginning they complained that there were companies created specifically to be able to enter the Barcelona competition.
The ACCO sees “a single company”
Now a report from the Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO) can open a new chapter. Both Barcelona City Council and one of the companies of the motosharing, Cityscoot, asked the ACCO to investigate four operators because they were allegedly acting in concert and therefore violating competition laws. In addition, according to the complaints filed, these four companies (TuCycle, Avant, OIZ and Eco-logica) would actually be acting in alliance with Reby, an urban mobility company founded by entrepreneur Pep Gómez.
The ACCO report – to which this newspaper has had access but has not been made public – comes to two conclusions, basically: the first, that “there are sufficient indications to consider that we are facing a single company” instead of the five that have been analyzed.
The ACCO claims to have documentation that would prove that the five companies are part of “a single company”
The second conclusion is that, in reality, there is nothing in the activity of these companies that is punishable from the point of view of competition, since the concerted actions (such as agreeing on prices) are only illegal. if the companies are independent of each other. And in this case, concludes the ACCO, “the companies reported […] together with Reby they form a unique company or economic unit of decision ”. Prices can only be agreed upon, for example, when companies are different.
Asked by this newspaper, Pep Gómez, still president of Reby (although he sold the company earlier this year), argues that the only relationship he has with the four companies reported is as a supplier: “We sell them software , hardware and we provide them with management services, such as fines, ”he explains. “We are neither partners nor shareholders of these companies: they are our customers.” Reby, in fact, did not enter with his name in the contest motosharing of Barcelona, and Gómez says they were not interested: “We would never operate in a city with 10 operators,” he says. For this business to be profitable, he argues, there needs to be fewer competitors.
The ACCO sees no competition issues because, for prices to be illegal, the five companies would have to be independent. However, these companies could have breached the terms of the City Council’s contract
The ACCO also collects these arguments from Reby, but claims to have had access to “certain documentation” that would call into question that the only link between these operators […] was derived from the sharing of the same provider […] and that this link would go beyond a merely contractual relationship ”. As evidence that the report cites, for example, there are Reby emails where they talked about financial information and joint business plans with the four companies investigated and also with four more operators who were among the 21 shortlisted. originally by Barcelona City Council (Air Sharing, Global Mobility, Ecohibrid and Uualk). Therefore, and according to the ACCO version, Reby could have initially allied with up to 8 companies.
Pep Gómez, President of Reby, defends: “We are neither partners nor shareholders of these companies: they are our customers”
The letter from the ACCO “specifically refers to a grouped business model that would include all the operators mentioned and Reby.” And there are also “certain statements” that lead one to think that Reby’s performance would not be limited to that of a simple supplier. […] but she herself is the one who would act, through the interposition of other companies, as an operator of transport services ”.
The City Council is studying it
However, the ACCO does not see it as a competition issue. The possible problem would be the fact that the 2020 award contract explicitly prohibits applicant companies from being part of a “group of companies” in accordance with the definition in Article 42 of the Commercial Code. .
If the City Council decides to take action against the companies investigated, the number of ‘motosharing’ operators could drop to just five ”
What needs to be clarified, therefore, is whether in accordance with the law these companies can be considered the same company, which Pep Gómez categorically denies. And this is important because, if it were concluded that they are a single company, the four operators could be set aside and all the licenses they have would pass to the remaining five operators.
Thus, of the 21 operators that were initially there in 2020, it could go to only five (since, by the way, someone else has left the city). But we have to wait: once the report was drafted in March, the ACCO sent it to the complainants (Cityscoot and Barcelona City Council). Today, the City Council’s legal services are still evaluating it to decide what to do.
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