Japan: Opened consultation on draft guidelines regarding abuse of a superior bargaining position in B2C transactions concerning personal information

On 29 August 2019, the Japan Fair Trade Commission published a draft of the "Guidelines Concerning Abuse of a Superior Bargaining Position in Transactions between Digital Platform Operators and Consumers that Provide Personal Information, etc" and opened a consultation until 30 September 2019. Specifically, the draft prohibits behaviour that may result in an "impediment to competition", extending the reach of oversight. Similar to the "abuse of a dominant position", the draft prohibits certain abusive conduct by companies in a superior bargaining position. But contrary to the "abuse of a dominant position", it does not require market power.