The Yomiuri ShimbunThere are many opaque points about the relationships between giant information technology firms, which operate online shopping malls, and online retailers. It is imperative to elucidate the real picture of online transactions.

The Fair Trade Commission has launched a questionnaire survey of online shopping malls. The FTC calls on many online retailers to answer questions about fees for using online shopping websites and the contents of terms of service as well as to tell their actual experiences.

Three major online shopping operators — Amazon Japan, Rakuten and Yahoo — have many customers on their shopping websites and so they are in a superior position in relation to online retailers. The FTC will mainly probe shopping malls operated by these three big firms to find whether they force unilateral changes of contract terms and additional burdens onto online retailers.

It is highly significant that the watchdog body will try to grasp more accurately the situation of the online shopping business, which has been growing rapidly, through the survey.

The FTC will compile the survey results around April. It is hoped that the outcome will be used to rectify problems steadily and strengthen regulations.

Systems of giving users points in proportion to the prices of their purchases will also be checked to find out whether they are operated properly.

Amazon has announced a policy to set the rate of points to be given at more than 1 percent of the purchase price. It is said that the new point system will be applied to all shopping items from May.

The focal point is whether Amazon makes it mandatory for online retailers to comply with the implementation of the new point system.

It is imperative to investigate meticulously whether Amazon’s act of calling on online retailers to accept the disadvantage caused by the new point system constitutes an abuse of its superior position.

Unfair practice suspected

In a different survey conducted by the FTC last year, about 40 percent of online retailers answered that they “are dissatisfied with” the fees to be charged for using online shopping websites.

Online retailers, if they are big businesses, are able to negotiate with shopping mall operators on an equal footing. Withdrawal from shopping websites is possible, too. But in the case of small, medium-size and tiny companies whose position is weak, it is suspected that in many cases they have no choice but to accept requests of online shopping operators even if they are unfair.

In the current survey, the FTC is also investigating the real situation of transactions in app stores, which are used when various apps are purchased on smartphones.

Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play are two major app stores. Application producers cannot sell their apps in most cases without going through these two companies.

Some app producers said the sale of their apps has been unilaterally terminated. Should there be unfair trading against a background of the strong controlling power of app stores, the situation cannot be left unaddressed.

Using a large amount of data on customers as an advantage, IT giants have been advancing their oligopolization of the market. Concern about harmful effects of this has been becoming stronger globally. The government, for its part, must expedite its review of regulations in cooperation with the authorities of foreign countries, to change them into ones that suit the times.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 8, 2019)Speech

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