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Japan: Watchdog seeks tougher rules on consumer data

By  |  July 16, 2019

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission plans to tighten controls on attempts by IT platform operators to inappropriately collect and use personal information, reported Nikkei.

A draft set of guidelines being worked out by the Commission states that any use of personal information, including users’ purchase history and location, without their consent constitutes an “abuse of a [commercially] dominant position,” a violation specified under Japan’s Anti-Monopoly Act.

The guidelines refer to such entities as online shopping malls and search engines whose market positions are so dominant that they no longer have serious rivals. If such companies are found to have violated the guidelines, the antitrust agency will issue business improvement orders, with sanctions for failure to comply.

Full Content: Asia Nikkei

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