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

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 prohibits designated business operators, whose services are integral to smartphone usage, from engaging in practices that could use their market position to unfairly disadvantage competitors or restrict consumer choice. In particular, the Bill states that designated businesses are prohibited from engaging in unreasonable discrimination against individual application businesses in the use of basic operating software or app stores and prioritising their products or services over others without a justifiable reason. Furthermore, the designated business operators are prohibited from unfairly restricting individual application businesses regarding payment methods, related web pages, or browser engines unless necessary for cybersecurity.