Japan's antitrust regulator has signed off on a plan from Amazon Japan to relax the pricing conditions it places on third-party sellers, wrapping up an investigation into claims that the retailer pressured merchants to cut their prices.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) granted the approval on Wednesday, according to a report by The Japan Times. The decision centers on a rule that tied a product's prominent placement on Amazon's site to whether the seller's price matched or beat offers on competing e-commerce platforms.
How the Commitment Procedure Works
The approval was issued under the JFTC's commitment procedures, an administrative tool that lets companies suspected of breaching the antimonopoly law propose their own fixes voluntarily.
Under this route, the regulator does not formally conclude that Amazon Japan broke the law. Instead, the commission will oversee how the company carries out its improvement plan over a five-year period.
The Pricing Rule at the Heart of the Probe
According to the JFTC, Amazon Japan began in 2019 to require sellers to price goods at or below what it called competitive prices in order for those items to appear as recommended products. The company used that term for the lowest prices listed on other online marketplaces, including Rakuten Ichiba.
Recommended items are shown in prominent spots on the site, and most purchases on Amazon Japan involve those listings. Because the platform is among the largest e-commerce sites in the country with a substantial market share, sellers had limited room to refuse the condition.
Some merchants reportedly ended up selling products at a loss to keep their visibility on the platform.
Why Regulators Stepped In
The JFTC concluded that the requirement constrained sellers' ability to set their own prices and could in effect compel them to lower prices. The commission was also concerned that the practice could weaken fair competition among online retail platforms.
Those concerns led the regulator to carry out an on-site inspection of Amazon Japan in November 2024.
What Amazon Japan Has Agreed to Change
In its plan, Amazon Japan committed to revising the rule that made matching or undercutting rival sites a condition for recommended placement.
The company will also redesign its product display pages within six months. The goal is to make sure that the lowest-priced offer from sellers on Amazon's own site is clearly shown to shoppers, even when that price is not lower than what competing platforms charge.
A Policy Under Scrutiny Beyond Japan
Amazon's competitive price policy has faced lawsuits and antitrust investigations in the United States, Germany and Canada.
The JFTC said it expects the approved plan to bring about improvements in Japan ahead of similar efforts elsewhere, positioning the country as an early mover in addressing the practice.
What the Decision Means for Sellers and Platforms
For merchants on Amazon Japan, the change could restore some freedom to price products differently across channels without losing prime visibility, which may ease pressure on margins.
For the wider industry, the case shows regulators increasingly focusing on how marketplace ranking and recommendation rules shape pricing. Founders building or selling through online platforms will want to watch how Amazon implements the changes and whether authorities in other markets follow Japan's lead.
Source: The Japan Times
