Tokyo, Nov. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday approved a business improvement plan submitted by Amazon Japan G.K. to ease the pricing requirements imposed on sellers, following an investigation into allegations that the company pressured sellers on its e-commerce website to lower prices.
The approval was given under the so-called commitment procedures, a type of an administrative measure under which businesses engaged in practices allegedly violating the antimonopoly law voluntarily submit improvement plans.
Under the procedures, the FTC will not make a finding that Amazon Japan violated the antimonopoly law, but will monitor the implementation of the improvement plan for five years.
In its improvement plan, Amazon Japan said it would revise its current pricing rule under which sellers are required to match or undercut the lowest prices offered on other e-commerce websites for their products to be displayed as recommended items in prominent positions on its site.
The company will update its product display pages within six months so that products offered by sellers at the lowest prices on Amazon's website are clearly displayed to consumers, even if the prices are not lower than those on competing websites.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Read in other languages