Japanese Court Holds That A Customer-Review Algorithm Change Abused "Superior Bargaining Power"

In a novel decision, the Tokyo District Court held that a restaurant review platform's unilateral change to its rankings algorithm violated a Japanese antitrust law that prohibits abuse of "superior bargaining power."

The Japanese Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade features extensive restrictions over unfair trade practices, including an "abuse of superior bargaining power," unique to the Japanese antitrust law and distinct from "abuse of dominance" under European antitrust law. That provision prohibits a business from taking advantage of its "superior bargaining power" and unjustly imposing transactional terms unfavorable to the counterparty in light of sound business practice.The most common application has been vertical agreements between large-scale retailers and their small suppliers in which retailers requested ex-post discounts or return of goods. In recent years, the Japan Fair Trade Commission ("JFTC") expanded