Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) conducted a raid on Amazon Japan’s Tokyo headquarters Tuesday on suspicion of violating antitrust laws by forcing unreasonable price cuts on sellers using its e-commerce platform.
The investigation, revealed through sources familiar with the matter, is focused on potential breaches of antitrust laws, including abuse of a superior bargaining position and restrictive trading practices.
According to the sources, Amazon Japan allegedly pressured sellers to lower prices of their products in exchange for advantageous placement on their “Buy Box” system, which highlights one seller’s product as the preferred choice on a product page, though no specific target amounts were set.
Shoppers must navigate to separate pages to view offerings from other sellers. Amazon is said to have demanded “competitive pricing” compared to other e-commerce platforms as a condition for inclusion on their Buy Box system.
Additionally, sellers were allegedly required to use Amazon’s in-house services, such as logistics and payment collection, to qualify for Buy Box promotion. The JFTC suspects these practices were aimed at boosting Amazon Japan’s competitiveness at the expense of sellers’ autonomy.
Amazon’s business practices have also faced scrutiny from regulators in the U.S. and Europe, with the Federal Trade Commission recently filing a lawsuit against the company over alleged monopolistic behaviors. In Japan, the JFTC plans to collect more information from domestic sellers to further its investigation.
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