Japanese Antitrust Regulators Have Investigated Amazon Japan

Recently, Amazon has conducted a number of improper investigations on Japanese suppliers and found that there are improper regulatory requirements on Japanese suppliers. In this regard, Amazon Japan is required to rectify and refund the supplier as soon as possible.

The reporter came to a large-scale logistics center of Amazon Japan company in Kawasaki City, and observed that the vehicles in and out of the site were very busy. In recent years, Amazon has developed rapidly in the Japanese market, with sales reaching 1.76 trillion yen (about 114 billion yuan) in 2019, ranking among the top three e-commerce companies in Japan. Especially after the launch of the same day delivery service, the business volume further improved. As a result, Amazon Japan has been asked to rectify the news, but also caused many concerns.

The investigation results show that Amazon Japan is mainly suspected of asking for money from suppliers, forcing price reduction or returning goods. For example, Amazon Japan sets the price of its website to automatically change with the price of its competitors. When profits fail to meet Amazon Japan's expectations, suppliers are required to fill the gap. At present, Amazon Japan has promised to cancel the cost calculation of suppliers, resume the bargaining power, re formulate the platform rules according to Japan's anti-monopoly law, and regularly report the rectification progress to the Fair Trade Commission within the next three years.

Most importantly, a total of 2 billion yen (about 130 million yuan) was returned to about 1400 suppliers involved.

It is not only the e-commerce platform, but also the issue of suppliers. Previously, in order to crack down on competitors, a health product company hired people to give bad comments on similar products on e-commerce websites at a price of 500 yen.

In response to this malicious behavior, the Japanese local court made a rare criminal punishment for defamation of credit and imposed a fine of 200000 yen. With the increase of illegal behaviors such as malicious bill swiping, how to further regulate the e-commerce market has become an important topic.

According to the latest data from Japan's Ministry of land and transportation on the 18th, the number of express delivery has set a new record for five consecutive years. In particular, under the epidemic situation this year, the growth of online shopping has become more and more obvious.

At the same time, in the first half of the year alone, the Japan Consumer Association received 130000 complaints about online shopping, 1.3 times the same period last year. Among them, there are many phenomena, such as the goods can not be delivered after the purchase, but after the free trial, they are charged a high amount of termination fee. Japan's relevant departments once again appeal to consumers to confirm the relevant terms before purchase and cancel the transaction as soon as possible if they feel inappropriate, so as to avoid greater losses.