May 17/2012
Japan Fair Trade Commission
The JFTC conducted the fact-finding survey on the trades between hotels and their suppliers, in terms of the abuse of superior bargaining position prohibited by the Antimonopoly Act (AMA).
The survey results revealed that the requests for purchasing and using unnecessary products and /or services accounted for a large portion of the percentage, specifically42.4%, compared to other types of acts possibly leading to the abuse of superior bargaining position (note).
The details are as follows.
1) Hotels widely requested their suppliers to purchase dinner show tickets, Christmas cakes andthe traditional New Year’s dishes (called 'osechi ryori').
2) In some cases, hotels requested to purchase the above items via associations - called 'Gyoshakai'- which were intentionally composed of suppliers.
Takashi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General of the JFTC, said, “The hotels needs to recognize such a fact, with strong leadership of top managements, to check promptly whether or not the acts possibly lead to the abuse of superior bargaining position, and once such cases identified, a quick remedy should be made voluntarily by hotels.
The JFTC will hold seminars for the hotels to prevent such violations. We will also request related trade associations of the hotels to make a voluntary effort to promote fairness of trade among the business by making their members thoroughly understand the contents of “Guidelines Concerning Abuses of Superior Bargaining Position under the AMA” and the results of the survey. “
(Note)Other types of acts possibly leading to the abuseof superior bargaining positionmean that "Request for payment of monetary contribution, etc.","Request for dispatch of employees etc.", "Refusal to receive goods", "Return of goods", "Delay in payment", "Price reduction", "Unilateral decision on a consideration for transactions"and "Request for redoing".
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