Japan: Closed consultation on draft evaluation by METI of specified digital platforms based on the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms

On 12 January 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) closed a public consultation on a draft document evaluating the implementation of transparency and fairness practices by Amazon, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Meta and Rakuten under the 2020 Act on Improvement of Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms. These companies have been designated by METI as “specified digital platform providers” under the 2020 Act and are required to exhaustively disclose the terms and conditions to sellers and consumers on the platforms, give advance notice when changes are made, implement fair procedures and systems and submit a report on their business operations to METI every year. The METI evaluated the efficiency of the voluntary efforts made by platforms to improve the transparency and fairness of their platforms.