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Cease and Desist Order against Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union

Cease and Desist Order against Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union

July 17/2008
Japan Fair Trade Commission

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC)investigated representations related to the clothing sold by Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union and found that the union was in violation of Item 1 (Misleading Representations about Quality) of Paragraph 1,Article 4 under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. Accordingly, the JFTC issued today a cease and desist order against the union pursuant to the provision of Paragraph 1,Article 6 of the Act.

1. Outline of the party concerned

Entrepreneur Location Representative
Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union 3-29-8 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Toshifumi Yamashita, President

2. Outline of the goods specified by the order
Outline of the clothing specified by this cease and desist order is as shown below:

Type of clothing Sales channel Catalogue title Retail price
Cardigan called “Original half-cashmere long cardigan with collar” and 8 other items catalogue sales “Mainichi Kiru Fuku, Winter 2007”, “Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007” and “Sukina Kurashi 2007 (First issue)” 4,990 yen to 6,990 yen

3. Outline of the Cease and Desist Order
(1) Outline of the violation
Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union made the representations as shown in the attached table on its catalogues for 9 clothing items in the same table from around September 2007 at latest to around March 2008. These representations gave the impression that the raw material of these 9 clothing items contained 50% cashmere. In fact, however,only a very small amount of cashmere was used as the raw material for most part of these 9 clothing items.

(2) Outline of the cease and desist measures
A. Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union should publicly announce that the representations in (1) above gave general consumers the misleading impression that its goods were much better than they actually were.
B. Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union should take measures to prevent recurrence and have these measures thoroughly disseminated to its officers and employees.
C. Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union should not make similar representations in future.

Attached Table


Name of Goods Catalogue title Representations
1 Original half-cashmere long cardigan with collar Mainichi Kiru Fuku, Winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere long cardigan with collar”, “Fluffy, light and warm half-cashmere”, “Half cashmere blend consisting of 50% of velvety cashmere and 50% of fluffy wool” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
2 Original half-cashmere turtleneck sweater Mainichi Kiru Fuku, Winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere turtleneck sweater” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
Watashi Surairu, Hard winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere turtleneck sweater”, “Half-cashmere fluffy knitwear” and “?Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
3 Original half-cashmere stand-collar sweater Mainichi Kiru Fuku, Winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere stand-collar sweater” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere stand-collar sweater”, “Half-cashmere fluffy knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
4 Original half-cashmere cardigan with collar Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Original half-cashmere cardigan with collar”, “Half-cashmere fluffy knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%"
5 Half-cashmere V-neck cardigan Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Half-cashmere V-neck cardigan”, “Half-cashmere high-necked sweater”, “Half-cashmere loose-neck sweater”,
“Half-cashmere polo-neck sweater”, “Beautiful half-cashmere knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
6 Half-cashmere high-necked sweater Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Half-cashmere V-neck cardigan”, “Half-cashmere high-necked sweater”, “Half-cashmere loose-neck sweater”,
“Half-cashmere polo-neck sweater”, “Beautiful half-cashmere knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
7 Half-cashmere loose-neck sweater Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Half-cashmere V-neck cardigan”, “Half-cashmere high-necked sweater”, “Half-cashmere loose-neck sweater”,
“Half-cashmere polo-neck sweater”, “Beautiful half-cashmere knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
8 Half-cashmere polo-neck sweater Watashi Sutairu, Hard winter 2007 “Half-cashmere V-neck cardigan”, “Half-cashmere high-necked sweater”, “Half-cashmere loose-neck sweater”,
“Half-cashmere polo-neck sweater”, “Beautiful half-cashmere knitwear” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”
9 Half-cashmere turtleneck sweater Sukina Kurashi, 2007 (First issue) “Half-cashmere turtleneck sweater” and “? Materials: Cashmere - 50%”

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

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