The JFTC Issued Cease and Desist Orders and Surcharge Payment Orders against Participants in Biddings for the Official Gazette Paper Ordered by the National Printing Bureau

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “JFTC”) today issued cease and desist orders and surcharge payment orders against participants in biddings for the Official Gazette Paper (hereinafter referred to as the “OGP”) (Note) ordered by the National Printing Bureau pursuant to the provisions of the Antimonopoly Act (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”).
　
(Note) The “Official Gazette Paper” means three types of rolls of paper, 1,188 mm wide, 891 mm wide, and 594 mm wide, containing waste paper pulp, which are used for the Official Gazette printing.
　
The JFTC found (i) that the participants had conspired and agreed to decide prospective winners and to bid at prices allowing those winners to win the biddings; (ii) that based on the agreements, they coordinated and agreed on a winner of participants for each OGP procurement in a predetermined order and allowed the winner to be successful in the bidding; (iii) that by these conducts at latest from June 5, 2017, the participants substantially restrained competition in the field of the OGP ordered by the National Printing Bureau, contrary to the public interest.
　
The JFTC found (i) that the participants had conspired and agreed to decide prospective winners and to bid at prices allowing those winners to win the biddings; (ii) that based on the agreements, they coordinated and agreed on a winner of participants for each OGP procurement in a predetermined order and allowed the winner to be successful in the bidding; (iii) that by these conducts at latest from June 5, 2017, the participants substantially restrained competition in the field of the OGP ordered by the National Printing Bureau, contrary to the public interest.

The conducts fall under unreasonable restraint of trade prescribed in Article 2, paragraph 6 of the Act and the participants violated Article 3 of the Act. The total amount of surcharge is 16.4 million yen.

* This announcement is tentative translation. Please refer to the original text written in Japanese for more details.