Using the idea of competition on the merits as a starting point, this paper attempts to establish a standard for determining a single direct transaction rejection that is illegal under the Japanese Antimonopoly Act（thereafter, “illegal refusal to trade”）. There may be a view that competition on the merits brings about the phenomenon that only by demonstrating superior merits and offering goods and services to market counterparties on attractive terms, a business operator acquires business partners by excluding competitors inferior to the said business operator, and the said act should not be judged illegal under the Japanese Antimonopoly Act. While this idea describes the practice of excluding competitors, the Japanese Antimonopoly Law can also assess other practices（excluding non-competitors, etc.）as illegal. Therefore, it is basic to use this idea as a starting point to determine an illegal refusal to trade when the alleged conduct constitutes an act that is geared toward excluding a competitor, and to use other idea（criteria）to determine an illegal refusal to trade when the alleged conduct does not constitute an act that geared toward excluding a competitor. In line with this framework, this paper attempts to establish criteria for determining an illegal refusal to trade.

一橋大学大学院法学研究科

2023-03

Japanese(jpn)

departmental bulletin paper

VoR

10.15057/79781

1347-0388

AA1161370X

一橋法学

22

1

129

155

22巻1号(2023.3)

https://hdl.handle.net/10086/79781