Japan: Entry into force with grace period of Bill on Promoting Competition Regarding Specific Software Used in Smartphones including interoperability requirement

On 19 June 2024, the Bill on Promoting Competition Regarding Specific Software Used in Smartphones was promulgated, with a grace period on the effectiveness of most of its provisions. The effective date of these provisions will be established by government ordinance within one and a half years of the promulgation. The Bill includes interoperability requirements for providers of specific software used in smartphones, including cloud computing services, search service providers, and app stores. The Bill would prohibit designated business operators, whose services are integral to smartphone usage, from engaging in practices that unfairly restrict competition or the entry of new entities into the market. Furthermore, the Bill would require designated business operators to facilitate the transfer of data to users or their designated persons upon request, allow users to change standard and default settings, obtain user consent for additional software, and enable the removal of individual software.