2003 JAPAN LAW: UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES
Keywords: Antitrust, Antimonopoly law, FTC, Fair Trade Commission, Unfair Trade Practices, Yamada Denki, Nippon Life Insurance,
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman
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The Fair Trade Commission has warned Japan’s largest electric home appliance retailer, Yamada Denki about deceptive sales prices. The company was advertising false prices about its competitors while trying to prove lower prices at its stores. In fact, its prices were higher than those of competitors.

The Fair Trade Commission also issued a warning to  Nippon Life, Japan’s largest life insurance company, that its ads for cancer insurance were deceptive. The firms advertisements sounded as though it would provide coverage from the moment the hospital was entered, even when it was only for testing to check for the disease. In fact coverage only started after the disease was confirmed. The company was ordered not only to stop the deceptive advertising but to notify policy holders and the public that the ads were deceptive.

In November, 2003 the FTC warned Daiichi Kosho about its restrictions on licensing of songs for karaoke businesses. The company had ordered its two licensing subsidiaries not to license about 60 songs very popular with middle aged and older men to karaoke competitors. Under Japanese copyright law, domestically in Japan, songs issued prior to the 1971 Copyright Law, require the permission of the record company with exclusive rights. Thus the firm was restricting its competitors through its ties with affiliated record company copyright holders. The FTC said this was an unfair trade practice.

In December, 2003 the FTC warned Asahi Beer about giving excessive sales promotion fees to retailers in the Osaka region which had large sales volumes. The FTC had received complaints from smaller retailers that it was difficult for them to compete due to these sales incentives. The FTC had issued similar warnings to Kirin Beer, Sapporo Beer and Suntory Beer the previous year.
 
Lotte Co. in July, 2003 filed suit against Ezaki Glico claiming unfair competition in violation of the Antimonopoly Law due to ads by Ezaki Glico claiming that its chewing gum had certain anti-cavity effectiveness five times greater than that of Lotte. Ezaki Glico claimed its ads were in accord with guidelines put out by the Fair Trade Commission.
 
Sankyo Co., one of Japan’s major pharmaceutical firms has filed suit against five pharmaceutical firms manufacturing generic drugs on claims of unfair competition. The company’s patent on a cholesterol drug expired in October, 2002 and now Sankyo claims that the competing products now put out by the generic makers too closely copied the packaging the company had for its own drug, thus causing confusion among consumers.