In response to the Fair Trade Commission’s call for public comments, JANE issued its views on the points indicated in the report of the Anti-Monopoly Act Study Group on June 30th.

Original comments are available in Japanese

【Summary of our views】

1. The new administrative fine system contains serious problems as it may result in overall raising of the amount of fines and could lead to government abuse of discretion as well as reduced foreseeability to business operators

2. To address the concerns above, the following points need to be clarified
　・The details and rationale of the base amount on which fines are calculated
　・Markup rates are applied in cases of repeated violations by “a group of companies” and
　　“under certain conditions”. The terms “a group of companies” and “under certain conditions”
　　should be clearly defined.

3. Leniency program should be expanded to cover not just unreasonable trading restrictions but also private monopoly and unfair trading practices.

4. In order to ensure appropriate procedures are followed with business operators suspected of violations, granting of attorney-client privilege should not be restricted to limited circumstances, and audio and video recording as well as the presence of a lawyer should be allowed during depositions.

【Reference】

Previous material on related topic
JANE comments issued on August 31 2016