JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Hiromi Hayashi, Daisuke Tsuta, Masaki Yukawa and Keiichi Bando, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
1.4 Consumer Protection Overview
1.5 The Role of Blockchain in the Digital Economy Overview Blockchain technology is broadly used in Japan. The use of blockchain technology itself is not regulated, but certain tokens are regulated as crypto assets, stablecoins or security tokens. Crypto Assets Exchange services of crypto assets such as bit - coin have been subject to regulations under the Payment Services Act since 2017. To engage in such exchange services, one must be regis - tered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), and registered exchange service providers must comply with AML requirements, client assets segregation, and other obligations. Separately from the Payment Services Act, the margin trad - ing of crypto assets has been regulated by the Financial Instrument and Exchange Act since 2020. Crypto assets are defined as (i) electronically recorded financial value which can be used for payment to, and can be purchased from and sold to, unspecified persons and are electroni - cally transferrable, or (ii) other financial values which can be exchanged with financial value described in the preceding clause (i) between unspecified persons, but not including assets denominated in fiat currency. In the game industry, one must pay attention to whether in-game currencies, items and rewards are regulated. The FSA’s administrative guide - lines provide certain clarifications on this issue. Stablecoins As seen in the definition of crypto assets, sta - blecoins that are linked to, or exchangeable only for, a certain fiat currency are not regulated as crypto assets. Such stablecoins have been regu -
While there are several laws on consumer pro - tection such as the Consumer Contract Act and the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, the key legislation in terms of consumer protec - tion for digital goods and services is the Digital Platform Consumer Protection Act. The principal regulatory authority of those laws is the Con - sumer Affairs Agency. Consumer Protection of Digital Platforms The Digital Platform Consumer Protection Act was enacted in May 2021 and took effect in May 2022. The Act applies to platforms on which consumers may purchase goods, services or rights for a consideration, without regard to the size of sales. The Act requires platform provid - ers to proactively protect consumers from sell - ers, which are not platform providers but just merchants in the digital platforms. Digital plat - form providers are required to take measures to enable smooth communication between sellers and consumers, investigate sellers in response to consumer complaints regarding transactional conditions, and require sellers to provide infor - mation on their identity as necessary. Digital platform providers may be requested by the Consumer Affairs Agency to remove certain goods, services or rights if there are false or mis - leading descriptions that are not voluntarily rem - edied. Consumers may require digital platform providers to disclose the names, addresses, phone and facsimile numbers, email addresses, and corporate registration numbers of sellers if they need the information to exercise their rights against sellers.
171 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook