Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading Revised

1. Outline of the Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading

The Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading were formulated in March 2002 with a view toward enhancing predictability for concerned parties and contributing to the facilitation of trade by clarifying how the Civil Code and other relevant laws are applied to various legal issues related to electronic commerce, information property trading, and other related activities (the guidelines were originally titled Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce as of March 2002).

With the cooperation of academic experts, related ministries and agencies, and the business community, METI presents an approach to the interpretation of existing laws. METI aims to have this approach serve as an indicator for interpreting such laws relating to electronic commerce and information property trading.

Since the formulation of the original guidelines in March 2002, METI has been revising the guidelines as necessary, in accordance with situations in trade practices, trends in related technologies, and the development of international and internal rules relating to electronic commerce and information property trading. METI revised the guidelines this time based on the results of discussions held by expert members of the Working Group on Rule Establishment for Business Utilizing IT under the Information Economy Subcommittee of the Commerce, Distribution and Information Committee of the Industrial Structure Council and working groups for drafting revisions.

2. Details of the revision

The following points were revised this time in line with the new and revised laws and regulations that came into effect since the last revision (April 2022) (this covers everything put into effect by April 1, 2024), including the revision of items related to digital platforms and those related to value transfer using blockchain technology.

I-2-1  Applicability of standard terms of contracts regarding website terms of use (updated)
I-2-2  Incorporation of website terms of use to which no provision of standard terms of contracts are applied in a contract and changes in the terms after conclusion of a contract (updated)
I-8-6  Business regulations for platform operators involving inter-user trading (updated)
I-8-7  Exercise of the right to cancel standard terms of contracts on digital platforms (newly introduced)
II-9-3 Reproduction of copyrighted works (deleted)
II-9-4 Use of other persons’ copyrighted works in e-learning (deleted)
III-14-2 Legal issues surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) (newly introduced)

Other necessary revisions were made, e.g., updating of information on reference guidelines and additional court cases.

3. Call for public comments for future revision

METI will revise the Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading as needed to address such situations as changes in trade practices, trends in related technologies, and the development of international rules relating to such trading. METI will call for public comments for future revision of the guidelines as necessary.

Please send your comments to:

Email address: bzl-junsoku☆meti.go.jp

Note: When sending comments, please replace the star (☆) with an at sign (@), and write "Comments on the Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading" as the email subject.

Related Materials (in Japanese)

• Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading (full text)(PDF:2,703KB)
• Outline of the Interpretative Guidelines on Electronic Commerce and Information Property Trading(PDF:143KB)

Related Link

• Promotion of electronic commerce

Division in Charge

Digital Economy Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau