Consent Decision No. 2 of 1998 Consent Decision
Respondent: Hokkaido Shinbun Press Corporation 3 – 6 Odori-Nishi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi Representative of respondent: Mr. Isao Higashi, President Attorneys for respondent: Masaki Baba, Esq. Satoshi Taguchi, Esq. Shiro Shida, Esq.
Where the Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC) proceeded with the hearing procedures regarding the violation of the Act Concerning Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (hereinafter referred to as “Antimonopoly Act”) against the aforementioned parties, on February 7, 2000 the said parties requested in writing that it desired to receive a consent decision under the provisions of Section 53-3 of the Antimonopoly Act and Section 59 of the Rules Concerning Investigations and Hearings by the Fair Trade Commission. In addition thereto, the written plan for the detailed measures and the report on the measures for a series of activities called the measures for Hakodate described in Part I. II. 2 of the attached Decision to Commence Hearing were submitted. Upon careful examination of them, it was confirmed that the measures described in the said written plan were appropriate. Therefore, under Section 53-3 of the Antimonopoly Act, it is hereby ordered as follows without any further hearing procedures.
Main Text
I. The subject company shall notify K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd., of the following matters and publicize them to the consuming public in the areas of Hakodate-shi,
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Ono-cho, Nanae-cho, and Toi-cho of Kameda-gun, and Kamiiso-cho of Kamiiso-gun, Hokkaido, as best it can. Ways of such notice and publicizing shall be approved by the Fair Trade Commission of Japan in advance. 1. That the heading subject company took the following measures against a series of activities called the measures for Hakodate taken by itself in order to prevent an entry of Hakoshin-sha and make its business activities difficult: (1) It withdrew all of the applications for registration of trademark in relation to the Hakodate Area; (2) It notified Jiji Press, Ltd., that it would not get involved in delivery of general news including domestic and foreign sports news to K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd.; (3) It decided to discontinue the previous advertisement rate for the local information edition and advertisement handling fees for the same and set appropriate advertisement rate and advertisement handling fees, and consequently revised the advertisement rate, etc.; and (4) It notified Television Hokkaido Broadcasting Co., Ltd., that it would not get involved in broadcasting of the TV Commercial of K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd. 2. That hereafter, it would not exclude the business activities of K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd. regarding publication of general daily newspaper through the same kind of activities as a series of activities called the measures for Hakodate as stated above. II. The hearing subject company shall not exclude the business activities of K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd. regarding publication of general daily newspaper through the same kind of activities as a series of activities called the measures for Hakodate as stated above. III. The hearing subject company shall report to the Fair Trade Commission about measures taken based on I. and II. above.
Findings of Fact and Application of the Law
Other than the following additions and revisions, there is no change in the descriptions of “Part I Findings of Fact” and “Part II Application of the Law” in the attached Decision to
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Open Hearing Procedures. Therefore, such descriptions are hereby cited and incorporated herewith. I. Following the word “Doshin-sha” on the line 6 of page 9
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information edition and advertisement handling fees for the same and revised them on January 1, 2000. With regard to the aforementioned revision of the advertisement rate for the local information edition, it notified applicable advertisement agencies on December 27, 1999. In addition thereto, it again notified on January 26 and 27, 2000. And with regard to the aforementioned revision of the advertisement handling fees, it notified applicable advertisement agencies on December 20, 1999. 4. On February 1, 2000, it notified TV Hokkaido that it would not get involved in broadcasting of the TV Commercial of K.K. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd.” V. The phrase “practically confines” on the line 5 of page 15 of the Decision
February 28, 2000
Yasuchika Negoro, Chairman Shohei Shibata, Commissioner Shogo Itoda, Commissioner Hisami Kurokochi, Commissioner Tadayoshi Honma, Commissioner The Fair Trade Commission of Japan
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(Attached) Decision No.3 of 1998 Decision to Open Hearing Procedures
Respondent: The Hokkaido Shimbun Press 6-3 Odori-Nishi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi Representative of respondent: Mr. Akira Sakanogami, President
The Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC) hereby commences the hearing proceedings regarding the accused case for violation of the Act Concerning Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (hereinafter referred to as “Antimonopoly Act”) against the aforementioned party.
Part I Findings of Fact I. 1. The Hokkaido Shimbun Press, is a company headquartered at the above address and engaging in the publication business of general daily newspaper with its sales area being Hokkaido (hereinafter referred to as “Doshin-sha”). 2. The number of issues of the morning edition of “Hokkaido Shimbun”, general daily newspaper issued by Doshin-sha (hereinafter referred to as “Hokkaido Shimbun”) in the Hokkaido area accounts for a majority of the total number of issues of the morning edition of general daily newspapers issued in the same area as of October 1997. Among such area, the number of issues thereof in Hakodate-shi, Ono-cho of Kameda-gun, Nanae-cho of Kameda-gun and Kamiiso-cho of Kamiiso-gun, Hokkaido (after August 1997, Toi-cho of Kameda-gun was added. Hereinafter referred to as “Hakodate Area”) accounts for a large percentage of the total number of issues of the morning edition of general daily newspapers issued in the Hakodate Area. Further, the number of issues of the evening edition of Hokkaido Shimbun in the Hakodate Area accounts for a large percentage of the total number of issues of evening edition of general daily newspapers issued in the same Area as of October 1997.
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3. Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd. (whose trade name was changed to the present one from Evening Edition Hakodate Shimbun Co., Ltd., on August 27, 1995. Hereinafter referred to as “Hakoshin-sha”) is a company established on November 15, 1996, having its head office in Hakodate-shi, and issues general daily newspaper “Hakodate Shimbun”, which is an evening newspaper, in the Hakodate Area starting on January 1, 1997 (hereinafter referred to as “Hakodate Shimbun”). 4. Obihiro Tokachi Hokkaido Japan, is a company having its head office in Obihiro-shi, Hokkaido, and issues general daily newspaper “Tokachi Mainichi Shimbun”, which is evening newspaper, in Obihiro-shi and its surrounding area (hereinafter referred to as “Obihiro Area”) (hereinafter referred to as “Kachimai-sha”). The number of issues of the said newspaper is at the top among evening newspapers issued in the Obihiro Area. Further, Kachimai-sha invests in and seconds its employees to Hakoshin-sha. 5. Jiji Press, Ltd. is a company having its head office in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, and engages in news distribution business to the news media, government and other public offices, etc. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiji Press”.) 6. Television Hokkaido Broadcasting Co., LTD. is a company having its head office in Sapporo-shi, and engages in the television broadcast business in Hokkaido under the Broadcast law (hereinafter referred to as “TV Hokkaido”). It has close relationship with Doshin-sha, for example, it accepts an investment from Doshin-sha, accepts retired person from Doshin-sha as its own officers, etc., and further, it obtains guarantee of obligations from Doshin-sha. 7. Many entities which engage in the publication business of general daily newspaper and issue so-called local newspaper select their newspaper titles which are connected with the name or city where such newspapers are issued in order to profess the newspaper to be the local newspaper and make use of such titles as a way to acquire subscribers. 8. (1) For any entity which engages in the publication business of general daily newspaper, it is important to receive various kinds of wire reports from domestic and foreign news agencies upon composing its issuing newspaper. Major entities which engage in the publication business of general daily newspaper in Hokkaido receive wire reports from Jiji Press or Kyodo News Service. (2) Any entity which desires to receive wire reports from Kyodo News Service shall, in principle, become a member of Kyodo News Service and bear a part of operational expenses to receive all of its wire reports. However, in order to receive wire reports selecting necessary reports not under such principle, approval by the board of directors is separately required. Entities which so receive wire reports are limited to
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those which have special reasons to do so and it is not easy for an entity which newly starts the publication business of general daily newspaper to receive wire reports. On the other hand, it is possible to receive only necessary wire reports from Jiji Press. However, there is a situation where, in the event that there is an existing contractor in applicable area and that the same kinds of wire reports as those of such existing contractor are requested, there is a fear that such existing contractor terminates its contract if Jiji Press deals with such newly request without paying serious attention to the existing contractor’s intention. Therefore, Jiji Press adopts its policy to give priority to existing contractors, that is, it will not deliver wire reports ignoring existing contractors’ intentions, which means that to receive wire reports is only possible upon obtaining such existing contractor’s consent. Doshin-sha is in the position of the existing contractor in Hokkaido. In addition, Doshin-sha is the main customer of Jiji Press and the biggest receiver of wire reports in Hokkaido. 9. Many entities engage in the publication business of general daily newspaper depend on income from sales of newspaper and advertising income for most of the amounts of its proceeds. As the advertising income is their important source of revenue as well as the income from sales of newspaper, the size of the advertising income has much effect on their operating revenue. II.1 (1) Doshin-sha has not been able to solve a situation where there is a big gap of the number of issues between the evening edition of Hokkaido Shimbun, issued by Doshin-sha in the Obihiro Area, and Tokachi Mainichi Shimbun issued bu Kachimai-sha and, if nothing had been done, there would be a fear that the system of sales of the morning and evening editions in a set, which is the sales policy of Doshin-sha, would collapse. Therefore, it has been taking measures to meet such situation called the measure for Obihiro”. Under such circumstances, there was a sign of establishment of a newspaper publishing company with its purpose being publication of evening newspaper in the Hakodate Area from around August 1994. Accordingly, at the meeting of the board of directors [of Doshin-sha] held on or around September 5, 1994, it was decided to set up a council to take measures for Hakodate which consists of the director-level persons in order to observe such sign of establishment of a newspaper publishing company in the Hakodate Area not to invite a situation like the Obihiro Area and to take measures according to progress of the situation. Further, at the meeting of the council for measures for Hakodate held on or around September 19, the basic policy was decided that each concerned department gives a consideration to detailed measures and so determined measures
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are to be implemented one after another. (2) Thereafter, on April 15, 1996, it was disclosed that Hakoshin-sha would publish Hakodate Shimbun in the Hakodate Area from January 1997. Therefore, at the meetings of the council for measures for Hakodate held on or around April 19 and 25, 1996, Doshin-sha decided the detailed measures with the understanding that the radical action shall be taken to make continuance of the newspaper publication business of Hakoshin-sha difficult, and at the meetings of the board of directors held on April 22 and May 7, 1996, such decisions were approved and it was decided to implement them one after another. (3) Since then, the board of directors of Doshin-sha has received and approved reports from time to time regarding the situation of implementation of the detailed measures for Hakoshin-sha. 2. The detailed measures which Doshin-sha takes in the name of the measures for Hakodate are as follows: (1) With regard to the measure for the newspaper title (i) Doshin-sha, in accordance with its decision of the meeting of the council for measures for Hakodate held on or around September 19, 1994, made a selection of newspaper titles considered to be used in the case of publication of newspaper in the Hakodate Area with the intent to make it impossible for a newspaper publishing company to be newly established in the Hakodate Area to use such titles though it has no concrete plan to use them. Then, Dohin-sha made applications for registration of trademark to the patent office regarding nine newspaper titles such as “Hakodate Shimbun”, etc., on or around October 20, 1994, which was acknowledged at the meeting of the board of directors held on or around December 5, 1994. (ii) After that, as it was made public that Hakoshin-sha would use the newspaper title “Hakodate Shimbun”, one of the titles which Doshin-sha was applying for registration of trademark, Doshin-sha decides to severely deal with the newspaper title at the meeting of the board of directors held on or around May 7, 1996 and served documents stating its demand to cease the use of the newspaper title “Hakodate Shimbun” under application for registration of trademark to Hakoshin-sha for the total of five times from June 1996 to January 1997. Please note that, as Hakoshin-sha’s objection to Doshin-sha’s application for registration of trademark was admitted by the patent office in November 1997 and the decision of rejection was rendered for the said application for registration of trademark, Doshin-sha expressed its dissatisfaction therewith and
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is appealing for such rejection to the patent office on December 1997. (2) With regard to the measure for wire agency (i) Dioshin-sha decided to take measures for Jiji Press, with which Hakoshin-sha desired to execute a wire reports contract, at the meeting of the board of directors held on or around April 22, 1996, and leave the matter to the discretion of the executive officer in charge of editing at the meeting of the council for measures for Hakodate held on or around April 25. (ii) Regarding the discord between Doshin-sha and Hakoshin-sha concerning the use of the title “Hakodate Shimbun”, under the circumstances where such discord was well known from newspaper reports, etc., Doshin-sha made contact with the executive officer of Jiji Press through the Tokyo branch manager of Doshin-sha and expressed its strong interest as to whether Jiji Press would deliver wire reports to Hakoshin-sha. Under such circumstances, the aforementioned executive officer in charge of editing had a conversation with the executive officer of Jiji Press at the head office of Jiji Press on or around May 1, 1996, to make it known to Jiji Press that Doshin-sha, as the existing contractor in Hokkaido, had no intention to approve delivery of wire reports to Hakoshin-sha by particularly confirming Jiji Press’ approach with the knowledge of its policy to give priority to existing contractors, and implicitly demanded that Jiji Press would not accept a request for delivery of wire reports from Hakoshin-sha. (iii) Although Doshin-sha became aware of the fact that Jiji Press refused Kachimai-sha’s demand to deliver wire reports to Hakoshin-sha requested on or around May 7, 1996, on the basis of Jiji Press’ policy to give priority to existing contractors through information collected by the Tokyo branch manager of Doshin-sha, etc., it continued to collect information about Jiji Press. Around the middle of July 1996, it obtained information that Jiji Press received a written application for wire reports contract of general news including domestic and foreign sports news from Hakoshin-sha. Based on such information, on or around July 25, when the executive officer of Jiji Press in charge of wire reports contract visited the head office of Doshin-sha, the aforementioned executive director in charge of editing of Doshin-sha, by questioning Jiji Press’ executive as to whether there was the application for request for wire reports from Hakoshin-sha and how to handle it, again implicitly demanded Jiji Press not to accept such application for request for wire reports from Hakoshin-sha. (iv) As stated in (ii) and (iii) above, by expressing Doshin-sha’s intention regarding delivery of wire reports to Hakoshin-sha to Jiji Press, Doshin-sha is obtaining an
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answer from Jiji Press that Jiji Press would not execute a wire reports contract with Hakoshin-sha without obtaining an approval of Doshin-sha, the existing contractor based on its policy to give priority to the existing contractors. (v) Due to aforementioned circumstances, in spite of repeated oral and written application for wire reports contract, Hakoshin-sha is in the situation where it has not been able to execute a wire reports contract for general news including domestic and foreign sports news with Jiji Press since the first publication of Hakodate Shimbun on January 1, 1997 up to the present. (3) With regard to the measure for advertisement soliciting activities (i) Doshin-sha, at the meeting of the board of directors held on or around May 7, 1996, decided to issue a local information edition as a separately printed pages attached to the evening edition of Hokkaido Shimbun in order to attempt to expand papers for the Hakodate Area competing with the signs of starting publication of new evening newspaper in the Hakodate Area. In addition, with regard to advertisement to be inserted in such local information edition, it decided and has been considered to set drastically discounted advertisement rate for medium and small business entities considered to be the subject of its advertisement soliciting activities with the intention to make Hakoshin-sha’s advertisement soliciting activities difficult. Under such circumstances, although it was estimated that the above measure would cause a loss through a provisional calculation of income and expenditure regarding such local information edition, at the meeting of the board of directors held on September 30, 1996, setting up the advertisement rate system for the local information edition was decided, such as reducing the basic rate of commercial advertisement to be inserted in the local information edition to half of the rate for advertisement inserted in the main newspaper, adding a certain rate of extra charges to advertisement handling fees of advertisement agencies which deal with applicable advertisement, etc., which has been implemented from November 5, 1996. (ii) Consequently, Hakoshin-sha has been in the situation where it is difficult to conduct advertisement soliciting activities since the first publication of Hakodate Shimbun on January 1, 1997 up to the present and has been forced to receive orders at a cheap advertisement rate. (4) With regard to the measure for TV commercial (i) Doshin-sha obtained the information that Hakoshin-sha, on or around October 1996, requested TV Hokkaido to broadcast a TV commercial to advertise the start of publication of Hakodate Shimbun to the consuming public, etc., for two months of November and December 1996 (hereinafter referred to as
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“Commercial”) and that TV Hokkaido accepted such request. Therefore, in order to prevent a broadcast of Hakoshin-sha’s Commercial, Doshin-sha demanded that TV Hokkaido should not accept Hakoshin-sha’s request for the Commercial broadcasting. (ii) After TV Hokkaido was demanded as stated above, although it once accepted the request through an advertisement agency for the Commercial broadcasting regarding the start of publication of Hakodate Shimbun, around the late October 1996, it practically rejected the request for broadcasting Hakoshin-sha’s Commercial by demanding change of the Commercial to a commercial which did not use the word “Hakodate Shimbun” through the advertisement agency. (iii) As a result of the above, Hakoshin-sha gave up the Commercial broadcasting regarding the start of publication of Hakodate Shimbun via TV Hokkaido.
Part II Application of the Law
According to the aforementioned facts, Doshin-sha practically confines competition in the field of publication of general daily newspaper in the Hakodate Area against the interest of the public by excluding Hakoshin-sha’s business activities through a series of activities called the measures for Hakodate, such as the applications for registration of trademark of a number of newspaper titles considered to be used by Hakoshin-sha, taken to prevent an entry of Hakoshin-sha and make its business activities difficult, which falls under the category of “private monopoly” provided for in the clause 5 of Section 2 of the Antimonopoly Act and violates the provisions of Section 3.
March 6, 1998
Yasuchika Negoro, Chairman Satoshi Uematsu, Commissioner Shohei Shibata, Commissioner Shogo Itoda, Commissioner Hisami Kurokochi, Commissioner The Fair Trade Commission of Japan
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