Japan Passes Smart Phone Software Law to Regulate Giants

TapTechNews June 12th news, according to Kyodo News, the plenary session of the Japanese Senate passed the Smart Phone Specific Software Competition Promotion Law at the local time on the 12th (today) to regulate the monopoly behavior of giant IT companies in the smart phone application market.

TapTechNews note: This law defines specific software as basic software (such as operating systems), application stores, browsers, search engines, etc. that are particularly needed in the use of smart phones.

This law encourages competition and behavior such as reducing quotations, aiming to provide users with more choices. Specifically, it requires that the Internet giants that already have an advantageous position be opened to relevant competing enterprises in the mobile software market and the operation of payment systems. If the giants have violations, the enterprises will pay 20% of the domestic turnover in Japan as a fine.

This fine standard is more than three times the standard for punishing improper crowding out other practicing units in Japan's anti-monopoly law. If there are repeated violations, the fine standard will be raised to 30%.

It is reported that by encouraging the entry of new enterprises, consumers will have more choices, and the subsequent competition is expected to lead to price reductions in products such as applications. The European Union has previously introduced a similar regulation - the Digital Markets Act (DMA) fully implemented in March this year, which puts forward a ban on giants such as Google and Apple.