March 3, 2022
Japan Fair Trade Commission
Today, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “JFTC”) issued cease and desist orders and surcharge payment orders against participants in bidding for specific data printing services ordered by the Japan Pension Service.
The JFTC found that these participants substantially restrained competition in the field of the above specific data printing services by, in concert with one another, designating prospective bidders.
The conduct falls under unreasonable restraint of trade prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (6) of the Antimonopoly Act (hereinafter referred to simply as the “Act”) and these participants violated Article 3 of the Act. The total amount of the surcharge is 1.74161 billion yen.
Additionally, the JFTC urged that the Japan Pension Service should attempt to make necessary improvements so that it may notify the JFTC if it discovers any information on bid rigging, and implement appropriate measures to conduct bidding in such a way that bidders cannot know other bidders in advance.
*This announcement is tentative translation.
Please refer to the original text written in Japanese for more details.
