Warning to TV Asahi Corporation

June 12/2008
Japan Fair Trade Commission

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has investigated TV Asahi Corporation in connection with its representation of sporting equipment that it sold and has discovered the fact as detailed below. The JFTC has today warned the company that it may be in breach of the provision in Item 1, Paragraph 1, Article 4 (misleading representation of quality) of the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations.

1. Outline of the Party Concerned

Company Location Representative
TV Asahi Corporation 9-1 Roppongi 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo Masao Kimiwada,
Representative Director

2. Outline of the ActivitySuspected of Constituting a Violation
TV Asahi Corporation provided the representation as detailed below in a broadcasting program entitled Chii Sampo and in other broadcasting programs entitled Selection X, Selection X Morning and the like for marketing sporting equipment called the Rodeo Boy II (hereinafter, “the Rodeo Boy II”). This representation is suspected of misleading general consumers into believing that the product is much better than it actually is.

Program titles Chii Sampo

Selection X,
Selection X Morning,
Selection X Deep,
Selection Saturday X,
Selection Sunday X,
and Tsuhan Special

Broadcast period From around June 2006 to around April 2007 From around June 2006 to around June 2007
Number of broadcasts 4 (in total) 193 (in total)
Representation These programs featured an experiment entitled “a three-week figure improvement challenge with the Rodeo Boy II,” in which several test subjects utilized the Rodeo Boy II and all of them subsequently considerably reduced their body weights, creating the impression that the significant weight reduction was achieved solely by the use of the Rodeo Boy II.
Fact It cannot be affirmed that the short-term use of the Rodeo Boy II alone produces the effect of significantly reducing body weight.

*Every announcement is tentative translation. Please refer to the original text written in Japanese.

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