Rakuten Inc., the management company for the online shopping site Rakuten marketplace, announced on Friday it would postpone its plan to require all vendors to offer free shipping, but instead would offer free shipping for purchases from certain shops. The original plan had been set to go into effect on March 18.
The company said it believed that with the spread of the new coronavirus, having all shops offer free shipping would prove difficult.
Rakuten's original plan was that if a consumer spent more than 3,980 yen at one shop, the items would be shipped for free, with the exception of shipments to a few regions. However, even the shops that agreed to offer free shipping voiced concern and urged postponement of the new plan.
This time, Rakuten made it clear that the shops that offered free shipping would be financially compensated if they incurred any losses due to the new policy.
The Fair Trade Commission pointed out that offering free shipping would unilaterally impose a burden on the shops, and it suspected the firm was violating the Antimonopoly Law by abusing its superior bargaining position. On Feb. 28, the FTC requested an emergency order to immediately stop it from the Tokyo district court.
"[The company] has not violated any laws or regulations," Rakuten stated in response to the FTC. Whether the court will issue the order and how the FTC will respond remain to be seen.
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