Japanese Authorities Raid Amazon Offices in Japan suspecting anti-trust violation

Amazon Japan has said that Japan’s fair trade regulation authority has raided Amazon offices in Japan suspecting anti-trust violations.

According to the media reports in Japan, the US-based online retailer was accused of asking suppliers to bear the costs that incur during sales of products at discounted rates on Amazon. According to the sources, the U.S. retailer told media that they are cooperating with Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) to investigate the issue—Said Reuters.

BBC also tried to contact Japanese authorities and provide more details on the case, but JTFC denied providing more details, however, the details are expected to come out as the case proceeds.

Amazon is not being investigated for the first time in Japan over the case like this, the authority JTFC had previously raided the company’s offices back in 2016 on suspicions it had forced the sellers to set the prices on Amazon platform lower than the prices of other e-commerce sites in Japan.

The regulatory authority finished their probe in June last year when Amazon agreed to stop the practice. Now the issue is also related to sellers and suppliers, Amazon should not attempt to force suppliers to bear the burden of discounted prices. After all Amazon as a company is the sole beneficiary of the “discount offers” which makes their platform more and more popular among shoppers, it should be on Amazon’s shoulder as far as the fair trade is concerned.