August 25/2008
Japan Fair Trade Commission
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC)investigated representations related to the service called “Premium Class” that allows the passenger to use the exclusive counter and lounge, airport services including priority boarding and high-class seats with more leg room than ordinary seats as well as enjoy in-flight services including meals on the plane provided by All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ANA) and found that they were in violation of the provision of Item 1, Paragraph 1, Article 4 (Misleading representation about quality) under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. Accordingly,JFTC issued today a cease and desist order against ANA in accordance with the provision of Paragraph 1, Article 6 of the Act.
1. Outline of the Party Concerned
| Entrepreneur | Address | Representative |
|---|---|---|
| All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. | 5-2, Higashi-shimbashi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo | Mineo Yamamoto, Representative Director |
2. Outline of the Cease and Desist Order
(1) Outline of the violation
When providing the Premium Class to general consumers from April 1,2008, ANA showed, for example, an image of the new type seats with partitions on both sides of the seat headrest so that the passenger could not be seen by the person sitting in the next seat (hereinafter referred to as the New Type Seat) and made representations such as “ANA’s Premium Class for domestic lines will start on April 1 all over Japan” in the advertisement inserted in general daily newspapers. They gave the impression that a Premium Class passenger could use the New Type Seat. In reality, however, there was no plane with the New Type Seat installed during the period from April to May of this year. On most of the planes, conventional seats were provided without modification. On the remaining planes, conventional seats were provided with their cloth replaced or leg room changed.
(2) Outline of the cease and desist measures
A. ANA shall publicly announce that the representations in (1) above gave general consumers the misleading impression that its service was much better than it actually was.
B. ANA shall take measures to prevent recurrence and have these measures thoroughly disseminated to their officers and employees.
C. ANA shall not make similar representations in future.
*Every announcement is tentative translation. Please refer to the original text written in Japanese.
