#  This English translation of the Specific Unfair Trade Practices in the Newspaper Business has been prepared (up to the revisions of Fair Trade Commission Public Notice No. 9 of July 21, 1999 (Effective September 1, 1999)) in compliance with the Standard Bilingual Dictionary (March 2008 edition). This is an unofficial translation. Only the original Japanese texts of laws and regulations have legal effect, and translations are to be used solely as reference material to aid in the understanding of Japanese laws and regulations. The Government of Japan will not be responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the legislative material provided on this Website, or for any consequence resulting from use of the information on this Website. For all purposes of interpreting and applying the law to any legal issue or dispute, users should consult the original Japanese texts published in the Official Gazette.
SPECIFIC UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICESIN THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS
July 21, 1999 Fair Trade Commission Public Notice No. 9
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 2, paragraph (9) of the Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (Act No. 54 of 1947), "Specific Unfair Trade Practices in the Newspaper Business" (Fair Trade Commission Public Notice No. 14 of 1964) shall be fully amended as follows:
        Specific Unfair Trade Practices in the Newspaper Business
(1) Any person, who operates the business of publishing a daily newspaper (hereinafter, "Newspaper") (hereinafter, "Publisher"), directly or indirectly, sells Newspapers by assigning different set prices or discounting the set price depending on area or counterparty, provided, however, that this shall not apply to the case that such acts are carried out on legitimate and reasonable grounds including that the Newspaper is used as educational material at schools and that the subscriber is a bulk buyer.
(2) Any person, who operates the business of selling Newspapers by house-to-house delivery (hereinafter, "the Distributor"), directly or indirectly, sells Newspapers by discounting set prices depending on area or counterparty.
(3) A Publisher imposes disadvantages on any Distributor by engaging in either of the following activities without legitimate and reasonable grounds:
  (i) Providing a number of Newspapers to the Distributor exceeding the number that the Distributor actually ordered (including when the Publisher fails to accept the Distributor's request to reduce the number); or
  (ii) Setting the number of Newspapers to be ordered by the Distributor, and providing that number to the Distributor.
Remarks
"Daily Newspaper" as used in this Public Notice shall mean a newspaper that uses a fixed title, for which matters related to current events are printed in the Japanese language, and which is published daily.
Supplementary Provision
This Public Notice shall come into force as from September 1, 1999.