Entries from March 2009
Non-profit Consumer group, “Hyogo Consumer Network”, plans to file an injunction suit against the Japan Airline, seeking ban of an irrational aricle for customer.
The company does not admit to restore a mileage point when a holder consumes it, even if an appropriated transaction is cancelled. The consumer group claims that the article should be regarded as a unilateral disadvantageous agreement; therefore it is against the Consumer Contract Law. An article of Yomiuri Shimbun reported it on 13th March 2009.
Categories: Uncategorized
Nikko Asset Management published a finding about the status of consumer recognition and perception concerning mutual fund products sales.
The White Paper about Sales of Mutual Funds pointed out that more than half of customers who purchased mutual funds is under insufficient status of understanding of products. About 30% of customers consieder that it can not be understood the reason why banks sell mutual funds .
Categories: financial services · securities
The Consumer Appliances Safety Law compels manufactures of consumer products to report serious incidents caused by their producing goods to METI. METI publishes the details of the accidents on the website. A recent finding shows them on 15th March 2009.
METI issued a report which compiled the findings of accidents due to using consumer appliances in 2008 fiscal year. An article of Asahi Shimbun showed it on 22th March 2009.
According to the report, about 20% of accidents were caused by responsibility of consumers; it showed the instances such as an improper usage or not confirming an instructions.
However, we can find usually that consumers do not examine instructions of consumer goods; manufactures have to take account of existence of misuse by consumers, when they design their products. In other words, it is suitable that significant number of accidents that are identified as responsibility of consumers is classified as producer’s liability rather than consumer’s liability.
The instruction of METI above mentioned is useful for consumer; but misuse of consumer goods does not always mean a consumer liability; if METI considers so, it should be said as old-fashioned criterion concerning consumer safety standard.
Categories: consumer injuries · product liability
To the JFBA decision that a member attorney should not recommend his customer credit card settlement, there would be existing strict critique. Such hostile view may be rational in general.
Consumer lawyers have been accusing credit companies that they got irrational profit by virtue of connecting with rogue traders, whereas they neglected suitable inspection for business credibility and financial status at the time when they made membersh0p contracts with rogue traders. In other words, Japanese lawyers, especially those who deal with consumer protection, have a special and instinctive perception to a consumer credit industry.
Such perception may not get agreement by ordinary people who get interest by credit card transaction; on the other hand, a victims getting finance by credit companies connected with rogue traders could have recognition to the feeling.
One accusation would say that an attorney’s business is not be different to other business; therefore it is not rationale that to approve a credit card settlement would prompt the attorney’s business to become usual business as same as other business sectors whose main priority are to get profit.
To the outlook, there would be an argument that most prestigious and important aim of lawyers should be to accomplish a justice rather than getting profit; therefore, lawyers business is different from other business sectors; whilst lawyers should not connect with a busines sector who may ease and assist rogue traders business, there is not still effective statutory regime that make consumer credit sectors hesitate to connect with rogue traders, such as a several and connected lender liability.
Categories: consumer credit
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations maintained his previous position concerning a controversial issue whether credit card payment to an attorney fee shall be restricted; the association asked members to discourage to be member-shops of credit companies. The resolution was executed on the board meeting on 19th March 2009.
The leadership of the JFBA was going to approve the credit card payment as means of settlement of attorney’s fee. In the board meeting, there was some opinion that a lump-sum payment by credit card should be admittable.
However, a hesitant opinion gained an advantage that if credit card payment were encouraged, dignity of an attorney’s work may be impaired; an attorney’s work should not be as same as a usual business.
This reluctant attitude may be based on the over-indebtedness caused by excessive credit card settlement; it claims that to encourage using credit card payment to an attorney’s fee shall make over-indebtedness issue get worse.
By the resolution, the JFBA is going to issue a notice that following practices may be disciplinable against a ethical code of conduct: a credit card company introduce his client to a connected member attorney positively; a member discloses a details of his case to a connected credit card company; an attorney recommend his client to use credit card for his payment, although the attorney know is aware of the state of his client’s shortage of financial ability.
Categories: consumer credit
METI issues a guidance of a franchise business on 17th March 2009. It underlines to make a suitable representation to a franchisee.
Actually, there has regulations that make sure the business to be fair; notwithstanding, there has been also a lot of disputes in this business type; and a lot of court rulings whic approved claims of franchisees has been accumulated up until now.
The guideline seems to be base on the standard which has been formed in these court decisions.
Categories: fair trading
The House of Representative loanchs a bill of establishing the Consumer Affairs Ministry on 17th March 2009.
Categories: authority, agency
As long as proposed views, discussing panel seems to maintain a previous criterion of the current Civil Code and the Consumer Contract Law.
The Civil Code prohibits duress; the contract concluded with the practice is voidable. The Consumer Contract Law prohibits a marketing activity which let a customer confused to make a contract; in addition, the confusing of customers should be occured due to either trespass or captivity.
In the EU unfair commercial practices directive, harassment and undue influence is prohibited as unfair practices, in addition to duress; as long as the proposed draft, the discussing panel does not take an account of these marketing practices as voidable. Whilst this practice may be prohibited in door-step selling by the Specific Commercial Practices Act, the activity is only constituted of an administrative punishment, except to tort.
Categories: agressive commercial practice · unfair trade practices
According to the article of Yomiuri Shimbun, the Tokyo District Court has ordered an Internet service provider to reveal the name and address of a person who used file-swapping software to spread leaked private information on the Internet of about 110,000 Kanagawa prefectural high school students in fiscal 2006.
IBM Japan Ltd., which had filed for a provisional injunction against the prefectural board of education and the Internet service provider seeking the offender’s name and address, announced the decision Friday. The decision was dated Feb. 26.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, it was the first instance in which a court granted a request to disclose a name and address via a provisional injunction, though there had been a previous case in which a court order was issued during a trial, which involves more complicated legal procedures than a provisional injunction.
The information had been spread by a personal computer infected with a virus that uploaded the information to the Internet via file-swapping software. The computer had been used by an IBM Japan subcontractor’s employee involved in developing an account-transfer system.
In December, IBM Japan had asked the Internet service provider to disclose the name and other information of an individual who had taken data of students’ private information, including names, address and bank account numbers for paying school fees, and made the information freely accessible to other file-swapping software users.
After the Internet service provider rejected its request, IBM Japan on Feb. 9 sought the provisional injunction, saying it needed to protect confidential information it learned while conducting business. IBM Japan also had filed for a separate provisional injunction against the individual in question after information on the person was disclosed, to prevent the recurrence of information leakage. The district court on March 6 reportedly decided to grant the second injunction.
According to the prefectural board of education, the information leaked on the Internet had already been disseminated, but the court’s decision cannot halt the further spread of the data by other Web users.
Categories: privacy
The Tokyo District Court has ordered an Internet service provider to reveal the name and address of a person who used file-swapping software to spread leaked private information on the Internet of about 110,000 Kanagawa prefectural high school students in fiscal 2006, it has been learned.
IBM Japan Ltd., which had filed for a provisional injunction against the prefectural board of education and the Internet service provider seeking the offender’s name and address, announced the decision Friday. The decision was dated Feb. 26.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, it was the first instance in which a court granted a request to disclose a name and address via a provisional injunction, though there had been a previous case in which a court order was issued during a trial, which involves more complicated legal procedures than a provisional injunction.
The information had been spread by a personal computer infected with a virus that uploaded the information to the Internet via file-swapping software. The computer had been used by an IBM Japan subcontractor’s employee involved in developing an account-transfer system.
In December, IBM Japan had asked the Internet service provider to disclose the name and other information of an individual who had taken data of students’ private information, including names, address and bank account numbers for paying school fees, and made the information freely accessible to other file-swapping software users.
After the Internet service provider rejected its request, IBM Japan on Feb. 9 sought the provisional injunction, saying it needed to protect confidential information it learned while conducting business. IBM Japan also had filed for a separate provisional injunction against the individual in question after information on the person was disclosed, to prevent the recurrence of information leakage. The district court on March 6 reportedly decided to grant the second injunction.
According to the prefectural board of education, the information leaked on the Internet had already been disseminated, but the court’s decision cannot halt the further spread of the data by other Web users.
Categories: Uncategorized
