Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf granted MyCC the stay after submission by its lawyer, Gopal Sri Ram, today.

Lawyers for MyCC had previously said the legal challenge by Grab Inc and its subsidiaries Grabcar Sdn Bhd and Myteksi Sdn Bhd was premature.

“We will adjourn this hearing, pending the Court of Appeal’s written grounds,” Rohana said. The other judges who sat with her were Abdul Rahman Sebli and Mary Lim.

Sri Ram said the High Court had been scheduled to hear Grab’s judicial review on Feb 14. The court had earlier turned down MyCC’s bid to halt the hearing pending this appeal.

The case was brought to the Court of Appeal, which allowed Grab’s bid to commence judicial review to question the proposed multimillion ringgit fine. MyCC then appealed against the appeals court’s decision.

Sri Ram said Grab’s counsel, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, had insisted for the hearing to proceed. However, he said MyCC wanted to know how the appeals court had decided to grant leave for Grab to commence judicial review.

Malik had told the court that Grab was objecting to MyCC’s bid to halt the High Court hearing, adding that the case had been pending before the courts since 2019.

MyCC had on Oct 3, 2019 proposed to impose the fine on Grab for breaching anti-monopoly laws by imposing restrictive clauses on its drivers, which the commission said could distort competition.

The commission said the clause in its contracts prevented its drivers from promoting other e-hailing services in their cars.

MyCC also said Grab’s merger with Uber saw the latter become the dominant player in the local e-hailing industry.

Grab subsequently commenced a legal challenge against MyCC over the proposed fine.