Japan’s Anti-Monopoly Body Orders Google to Fix Ad Search Limits Affecting Yahoo

Japan’s anti-trust watchdog stated on Monday that the search giant Google has to fix the ad search restrictions placed on Yahoo in Japan. The JFTC (Japan Fair Trade Commission) said that according to their research into Google’s practices, Google has been undermining fair competition in the AD market in Japan.

Google has commented that it has wholly complied with the commission’s probe and that no violation had been found at the time. It has also promised that it will carry out all of the directives given by the JFTC to give Japanese users and advertisers the option to use search functions in the Ad program.

The question of Google’s monopoly came about a decade ago and has continued ever since. Google Japan will now be under strict review by the JFTC to make sure that it will carry out the changes as stated by the commission. 

The commission move is pretty much a follow-up of another setback for Google in Japan as just last week many Japanese doctors filed a civil lawsuit stating that Google allowed defaming and false comments to be posted on the review section of Google Maps regarding their businesses.

Google has promised that it will take a 24-hour monitoring approach to make sure that any false, misleading, or derogatory information does not get posted on its platform.