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UBER-like Algorithms

and the Japanese Antimonopoly Law:

Regulating through Unfair Trade Practices?

Steven VAN UYTSEL *

1. Introduction

In her English exposé on the Japanese antimonopoly law, Estuko Kameoka

familiarizes the reader with the concept of a ‘vertical cartel.’ Even though Kameoka
1
equates the vertical cartel with a vertical agreement in European Union competition

law, the context in which she cites the concept is quite different from a mere vertical
2
agreement. Vertical cartels are situated in the realm of kansei dango, a practice in which
3
the bureaucracy is acting as a facilitator for the cartel formation between firms bidding

for public procurement projects. The kansei dango does, in other words, not only reveal
4
a horizontal but also a vertical agreement. The horizontal agreement exists among
the competitors submitting the bid and the vertical agreement between the competing

firms and the bureaucrats.
Despite the complex relationships of a kansei dango being catalogued as a cartel,

the Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade
5
(Antimonopoly Act or AMA) only applies to the horizontal dimension. In other words,

* Professor, Faculty of Law, Kyushu University (Japan).
1 Kameoka (2014), p. 44.
2 Kameoka (2014), pp. 44-45.
3 Kameoka (2014), p. 45.
4 Wakui (2018).
5 Law No. 54 of 1974, shiteki dokusen no kinshi oyobi kousei torihiki no kakuho ni kan suru houritsu [Law
Concerning the Prohibition of Private Monopolies and the Assurance of Fair Trade] (AML). Available at: https://
www.jftc.go.jp/en/legislation_gls/amended_ama09/index.html Accessed 15 December 2020.

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