Japan: Consultation opens on Guidelines for Consumer Protection Rules under the 2022 Amendment of the Telecommunications Business Act

On 21 June 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC) of Japan issued a draft revising the Guidelines for Consumer Protection Rules under the Telecommunications Business Act and opened a public consultation. The Draft guidelines outline the user protection requirements that telecommunications service providers have to implement. In particular, the draft clarifies the new obligations included in the 2022 Amendment to Telecommunications Business Act. Under the Amendment, it would be mandatory for telecommunications services, including online business operators, social networking service providers, and search engine providers, to notify the user in advance or provide opt-out measures concerning the external transmission of uniform resource identifiers (URI). The stakeholders are invited to submit their comments until 5 September 2022.