Japan: Issued Report Following METI Investigation into Specified Digital Platforms’ Compliance with Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms

On 2 February 2024, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) issued its report following the investigation into transparency and fairness measures adopted by Amazon, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Meta and Rakuten under the 2020 Act on Improvement of Transparency and Fairness of Specified Digital Platforms. The METI evaluated the platform's digital advertising practices. The entities 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 and issued further recommendations. The METI stated that if the platforms fail to voluntarily implement the recommendations, it will issue binding orders under the Transparency Act.