Photo/Illutration The headquarters of the Fair Trade Commission (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Fair Trade Commission on Oct. 31 announced a list of actions by giant IT companies that risk breaching the Anti-Monopoly Law through their digital platforms.

The FTC compiled the list from responses to a survey it carried out of retailers that are based on the companies' online shopping malls and app stores.

By clarifying the law's standards, the FTC aims to alert retailers of their rights so they can avoid being taken advantage of by dominant platform providers who have huge shares in the market.

According to the FTC, demanding that retailers pay a higher commission after changing the rules unilaterally or forcing them to accept goods that consumers return may constitute abuses of their dominant bargaining position, which is prohibited by the antitrust law.

Restricting retailers from using other platform providers may also be a violation.

The FTC also said large IT companies or dominant platform providers that display their own products in the top positions of online search results could be seen as hindering transactions by the retailers they partner with.

Forcing retailers to choose designated payment methods or demanding they sell their goods at the cheapest price in their service might be seen as restrictive transactions.

In the survey from January to September, the FTC asked about online shopping malls, including ones operated by Amazon.com Inc. and Rakuten Inc., and sites selling apps operated by Apple Inc., Google Inc. and others. The survey covered eight digital platform providers and 85 retailers.

The FTC then compiled a report of cases which might violate the antitrust law.

The central government set up an expert committee on digital market competition in October that is considering regulations for digital platform providers.

It plans to propose legislation on making transactions by digital platform providers more transparent. The bill is expected to be presented to the ordinary Diet session next year.