Japan's antitrust watchdog Thursday unveiled draft guidelines for the law governing smartphone software services of U.S. tech giants Google LLC and Apple Inc, aiming to promote competition from smaller firms.

The law to go into full effect in December is the latest effort by the Japan Fair Trade Commission to stop the powerful companies from excluding smartphone app competitors from accessing their proprietary app stores. The commission hopes the change will address their dominance of the market.

The law will also prohibit the firms from using data obtained from the operation of their app stores or operating systems in their own products or services, as this would give an advantage in development and other activities, the commission said.

To prevent unfair and anticompetitive treatment of software suppliers, the law will prohibit Apple and Google from conducting product screening outside normal assessments on companies wishing to transition apps from one store to another.

The commission hopes the promotion of competition will benefit consumers by helping reduce prices and improve access to convenient apps.

The two companies are not, in principle, prevented by law from conducting deeper screenings of apps if they do so from the perspective of ensuring cybersecurity or preventing content that promotes violence or is otherwise harmful.

The law was partially implemented last December without specifying which companies would be subject to it and how it would be applied to their activities. The commission will invite public submissions through June 13 before finalizing the guidelines by the end of July.

The law will "allow for a faster response to antitrust practices than under the antimonopoly law," a commission official said.

The fair trade body in April established a new section that is primarily responsible for policing and investigating large tech firms and hired more part-time IT experts from the private sector, tripling the number to around 60.

Source: Japan Today 

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