Diet passes bill to regulate tech giants

NHK -- May 28

Japan's Diet has enacted legislation to tighten regulations on IT giants by requiring them to ensure transparency of their online business transactions with their business partners.

The legislation was approved at the Upper House plenary session on Wednesday.

Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, known as GAFA, and Rakuten of Japan operate online mail order sites and mobile app stores.

The new law will require such companies to disclose the terms of their contracts with their business partners in online businesses as they are in a stronger position than their business partners. If they change the terms of a contract, they will be required to give advance notice.

The new restrictions include preventing those companies from altering contracts in a way that would be advantageous to them or from unilaterally raising commissions.

The law enables the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry to offer advice or issue orders to any company that does not comply with the requirements.

If a company is suspected of violating the anti-monopoly law, the Fair Trade Commission will be asked to respond.

The law also obliges the IT giants to submit annual reports evaluating their operations to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.

The European Union is planning to introduce similar regulations for IT giants this year.

May 28 (ANNnewsCH) - グーグルやアマゾンなどの巨大IT企業に対し、取引先との契約条件の開示を義務付けるなど市場の透明性を高めるための新たな法律が成立しました。  新たな法律では巨大IT企業に対して出店者との取引条件の開示を義務付けたり、運営状況を年度ごとに政府に報告するよう求めています。取引条件が不当に開示されなければ、罰則の対象となる可能性もあります。対象となる企業はグーグルやアップルなど巨大なアプリストアやアマゾン、楽天などの通販サイトが想定されていて、今後、売り上げ高などで基準が定められます。