The Japan Fair Trade Commission plans to advise electronics retailer Bic Camera to prevent a recurrence of unreasonable reductions in payments to subcontractors that manufacture its private-brand products, informed sources said Tuesday.
The commission found that Bic Camera unreasonably cut the payments by a total of about ¥500 million in violation of the subcontract law.
After being investigated by the FTC, Bic Camera paid all of the reduced amount to the subcontractors, according to the sources.
Over a period of about a year from the summer of 2023 at the latest, Bic Camera reduced payments to about 50 subcontractors for the manufacturing of its private-brand products under the guise of "sales incentives," the sources said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Bic Camera admitted that the company is under investigation by the FTC, adding that it has no matters to disclose at the moment.
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