Japan Fair Trade Commission Investigates Amazon for Antitrust Law Violation

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has launched an on-site investigation into 'Amazon Japan,' an online shopping mall operator, to determine whether it has violated antitrust laws, Yomiuri Shimbun and others reported on the 27th.

According to the report, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission conducted the investigation after concluding that Amazon Japan abused its dominant position by forcing shopping mall tenants to engage in "transactions with binding conditions," which are prohibited under antitrust laws.

The commission found that Amazon Japan required tenants to set prices lower than those on competing online shopping malls and pressured them to use Amazon's paid logistics services for product packaging and shipping. It also viewed Amazon as abusing its dominant position by excluding products from its own recommended items if tenants refused to lower prices.

Yomiuri stated, "If a product is removed from the recommended items, its exposure opportunities drastically decrease, leading to a drop in sales, so tenants had no choice but to comply with the demands," adding, "These actions may have been occurring for at least several years." Amazon Japan was also subject to on-site investigations by the Fair Trade Commission in August 2016 and March 2018 on suspicion of violating antitrust laws.

The Fair Trade Commission plans to analyze the investigation results and related materials and proceed with additional investigations with administrative sanctions in mind. Furthermore, it intends to investigate Amazon.com, the U.S. parent company of Amazon Japan, on the possibility that it created the related systems.

According to the Japan External Trade Organization, Amazon Japan held a 28.2% share of the domestic online shopping market in 2022, ranking first.

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