photo from: zczj.com

Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Japanese antitrust regulator has scheduled to probe Amazon Japan in order to confirm if a new service of the well-known e-commerce platform has broken Japan’s antitrust law.

The FTC is planning to intensify supervision on a series of American Internet companies including Google, Apple and Amazon.

Target on Points

Amazon Japan scheduled to define all commercial products sold on the platform as point-rewarding products, which means customers who purchase any commodity on Amazon Japan will get points in reward.

The points can be used as equivalent to pay on Amazon Japan. Regarding different levels of members, customers can get points which cover from 1% to 2.5% of the products purchased, which is worth one Japanese Yen for per point.

Before the new service, the reward point program was only available for products sold by Amazon. After May 23, the suppliers are forced to reward points according to Amazon Japan’s new term, while the point fees will be solely afforded by suppliers. In Amazon Japan’s claim, the new policy is beneficial to raise shopping convenience and broaden markets for suppliers.  

In Kyodo News report, the unilateral points reward policy provides no room for negotiation between suppliers and Amazon Japan.

Prevention on Monopoly

It was confirmed by the FTC on February 26 that it would probe on detailed transaction information of Amazon Japan to examine whether the compulsory point-reward system has violated the antitrust law.

Up to date, there’s no reply for the investigation by Amazon Japan.

The market of Japan has been greatly covered by the international Internet tycoons of Amazon, Apple. and Google. According to investigations held by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on minor enterprises, the suppliers used to be forced to accept unfair transactions by unilateral term alteration on the platforms.

The FTC has launched a program on collecting reports on suspected monopoly from users of such platforms since January, 2019 and planned to ask for replies of those companies from February 27th. The regulator will start a compulsory investigation if the enterprises refuse to cooperate.

It’s reported by Kyodo News that the FTC is taking a very unusual step for the investigation.

“The problem is quite severe if the companies have taken its advantageous position to change contracts unilaterally and force suppliers to afford too much.” told by Hiroshige Seko, minister of the METI on February 26.

February 28, 2019

Source: Xinhua.com