Monitoring Meeting on the Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms to be Held

1. Background and purpose

The Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms (enacted on May 27, 2020; promulgated on June 3, 2020; brought into force on February 1, 2021; called as the “TFDPA”) requires the "specified digital platform providers" that are subject to its specific regulations to disclose terms and conditions and other information, develop procedures and systems to ensure their fairness in a voluntary manner, and submit a report every fiscal year giving an overview of their business and measures that they have conducted, to which self-assessment results are attached. The Act also specifies that the Minister of METI will review the transparency and fairness of the specified digital platforms and make the results of the review public.

In preparations for the above review, METI will hold a Monitoring Meeting on the Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms in order to hear opinions from stakeholders, such as academic experts, business users, consumers, and others.

At the meeting, participants will discuss matters based on the reports submitted by the specified digital platform providers and information brought to the consultation desk for business users of digital platforms (shop owners on online shopping malls, app developers, etc.). They will also do so while listening to the opinions of business users and consumers of digital platforms, digital platform providers, and so on.

These efforts (called as “Monitoring & Review) will be harnessed to promote the sharing of challenges and mutual understanding among the parties involved, and improve the transparency and fairness of specified digital platforms.

2. Members, etc.

＜Chair＞

Okada Yosuke, Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University

<Members>

Ikegai Naoto, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University
Kuroda Toshifumi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Tokyo Keizai University
Korenaga Daisuke, Professor, Graduate School of Law and Politics, Tokyo Metropolitan University
Takakura Hiroki, Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division, National Institute of Informatics
Takeda Kuninobu, Professor, Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University
Hyakubu Michiko, Senior Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata LLC
Hirayama Kentaro, Founding Partner, Hirayama Law Offices / Associate Professor, Graduate School of Law, Kyushu University
Masujima Masakazu, Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
Wakae Masako, Senior Writer, The Yomiuri Shimbun

<Observers>

Stakeholders of digital platform user businesses, consumer organizations, persons with knowledge of the digital platform business, and relevant ministries and agencies

3. Schedule, etc.

The first meeting will be held on December 24 (Fri.) from 8:00 to 10:00 (online; open to the public).
The meeting will be open to the public in principle. However, part or all of the meetings may be made private when deemed necessary depending on individual circumstances. The minutes of the meetings will still be published.

Related links

• Digital platform
• Designation of Digital Platform Providers Subject to Specific Regulations Under the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms
• Cabinet Decisions Made on Two Cabinet Orders for the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms
• Cabinet Decision on the Bill for the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms

Division in Charge

Digital Market Policy Office, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau