Van Uytsel, Steven; Uemura, Yoshiteru --- "Online platforms and the Japan Fair Trade Commission: the DeNA case as an example of early market intervention" [2019] ELECD 2766; in Lundqvist, Bjorn; Gal, S. Michal (eds), "Competition Law for the Digital Economy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 231

Book Title: Competition Law for the Digital Economy

Editor(s): Lundqvist, Björn; Gal, S. Michal

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Online platforms and the Japan Fair Trade Commission: the DeNA case as an example of early market intervention

Author(s): Van Uytsel, Steven; Uemura, Yoshiteru

Number of pages: 33

Abstract/Description:

This chapter details the cease-and-desist order of the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) against DeNA for attempting to exclusively link the most important third-party game developers to its social network service to the detriment of Gree. Even though this conduct is unilateral in nature, the order does not provide a market power analysis. Instead, the JFTC emphasizes that the method used was inappropriate and this on the basis of Article 19 of the Antimonopoly Law (AML) in combination with Section 14 of the General Designation of Unfair Trade Practices. This choice is unusual. Section 14 is barely used. By reconstructing a possible relevant market, the chapter seeks the reason for this exceptional choice in the desire of the JFTC to opt for an early market intervention. It is argued that the market in which DeNA and Gree were operating was still in full development. Market power may have been difficult to establish and, therefore, JFTC would not have been able to intervene on the basis of more conventional sections of the General Designation.