Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) is pleased to announce the holding of the 10th ICN Unilateral Conduct Workshop.

The workshop theme is “Developments and Challenges of Competition Policy and Enforcement in the Current Unilateral Conduct Area.” Recently, we have seen not only further globalisation and digitalisation of the economy, but also various crises, e.g. energy crisis, impacting the global economy. They are simultaneously presenting the new challenges to the competition authorities and increasing the importance of competition policy and enforcement developments in the unilateral conduct area. In this workshop, we will therefore discuss a wide range of topics on competition policy and enforcement pertaining to unilateral practices.

We believe that ICN member agencies and Non-Governmental Advisors will be able to share knowledge and experience with each other and gain valuable information and helpful insights from other members through the intensive discussions at this workshop. And we hope that this will contribute to solutions for the challenges we face and will help to build strong relationships as a basis for cooperation between the competition authorities.

The workshop will be held in Tokyo, Japan, on 7 and 8 March 2023. We do hope participants will take advantage of this opportunity to foster interactions with one another.

JFTC looks forward to welcoming you in the coming March.

FURUYA Kazuyuki
Chair
Japan Fair Trade Commission

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) was established in 1947 and has been acting as a competition authority in Japan.

The JFTC is an independent administrative commission consisting of a Chair and 4 commissioners. These members are appointed from among experts in law or economics by the prime minister with the consent of the Parliament. The JFTC is unique in that it performs its duties as independent administrative commission without being directed or supervised by other organs.

The mission of the JFTC is to: (i) ensure competition through strict enforcement of the Antimonopoly Act (competition law), and (ii) improve competitive environments through advocating for the competition, as the two wheels of a cart.

For the mission above, the JFTC vigorously enforces the Antimonopoly Act, and positively implements competition policy (competition advocacy). Furthermore, the JFTC has actively contributed to various international activities such as ICN (International Competition Network) and OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

The JFTC is one of the founding members of the ICN and has been a member of the Steering Group from the beginning. The JFTC has hosted some conferences of the ICN, for example, the Annual Conference in 2008, the Cartel Workshop in 2010 and the Merger workshop in 2018. Now the JFTC is hosting the Unilateral Conduct workshop in Tokyo, 2023.

For further information, please visit the JFTC’s website at: https://www.jftc.go.jp/en/index.html.

International Competition Network (ICN) is an informal network of competition agencies, enriched by the participation of non-governmental advisors (or NGAs; representatives from academics, and the legal and economic professions), with the common aim of addressing practical competition law enforcement and policy issues. By enhancing convergence and cooperation, ICN promotes sound competition policy and its effective enforcement worldwide for the benefit of consumers and businesses.

ICN was founded in October 2001. The ICN’s membership has grown to 143 competition agencies from 132 jurisdictions. ICN operates by consensus and its work takes place in practical working groups (i.e. Advocacy Working Group, Agency Effectiveness Working Group, Cartel Working Group, Merger Working Group and Unilateral Conduct Working Group) developing materials and conducting discussions typically via webinars or e-mail. Members and experts get together annually to report working group projects and their implications for enforcement. In addition, ICN working groups organize periodic worshops on specific enforcement and policy topics.

ICN will keep promoting convergence and cooperation through its activities and will welcome any active participation of member agencies and NGAs.

For further information, please visit ICN’s website at ( https://www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/ ).