The proliferation of the internet has made it easy for anyone to purchase goods and services. However, at the same time, there has been an increase in damages caused by malicious business practices using the internet, with troubles related to regular purchases in particular on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to data from the Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency, the number of consultations regarding “regular purchases” in mail-order sales was 56,302 in 2020 (Gregorian calendar year), an increase of about 26% compared to the previous year, and a sharp increase of about 14 times compared to 2015. Furthermore, over 90% of these were consultations regarding internet mail-order sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially for regular purchases of food and cosmetics, many consultations have been received about problems such as being required to pay a large amount of money when trying to cancel after applying for attractive advertisements such as “trial” and “monitor”, or not being able to proceed with the cancellation process because they cannot contact the seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to this issue, the “Study Committee on the Status of the Japanese Act on Specified Commercial Transactions and the Deposit Law” was held six times from February 2020 (Gregorian calendar year) under the leadership of the Consumer Affairs Agency. In these meetings, strong words such as “fraudulent regular purchase business practices” were used for certain sales methods. What conclusion was reached?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this article, we will explain in detail the points of amendment to the “Japanese Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (Specified Commercial Law)” against the “fraudulent regular purchase business practices” pointed out in the report of the study committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n