検索操作、独禁法違反の恐れ＝ネット通販・アプリ販売を調査－公取委

　米グーグルなどＩＴ大手への規制をめぐり、公正取引委員会は３１日、インターネット通販やスマートフォンのアプリ販売に関する実態調査報告書を発表した。ネット通販の運営会社が個人の検索結果を操作し、自社や関連会社の商品を検索ページの上位に掲載するといった行為について、独占禁止法違反の疑いがあると指摘。関係企業に周知し、適正な競争環境の整備を促す。
　調査は政府が進めるＩＴ大手に対する規制強化の一環。政府は具体策を盛り込んだ「デジタル・プラットフォーマー取引透明化法案」を来年の通常国会に提出する予定で、実態調査の結果も同法案に反映させる。（2019/10/31-15:18）

Japan's Fair Trade Commission said in a survey report Thursday that online shopping site operators' practice of allowing products of the firms or affiliates to rank high by manipulating results of individual users' internet searches could be in violation of the antimonopoly law.
   The antitrust watchdog will notify shopping site operators of such possibility in order to promote the development of fair competitive environments.
   The FTC survey on online shopping and smartphone app sales was part of the government's moves to toughen regulations on information technology giants.
   The government plans to submit a bill to promote the transparency in transactions involving IT giants to next year's ordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament. The FTC survey results will be reflected in the bill.
   Firms such as e-commerce giant Amazon.com and app providers Google and Apple could have superior power to companies using their services on the back of their overwhelming market shares. The report quoted one user company saying that it cannot help using major online shopping sites even if it has something to complain about, because they can attract many customers.