The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has initiated a probe against Google, which has been alleged to be abusing its dominant position, by limiting the operations of rivals like – LY Corporation (LYC) & Yahoo Japan (Yahoo), in the online advertising market. It has been alleged that Google unilaterally made a request to LYC & Yahoo to halt part of their online advertising business for a certain period of time, in consideration of receiving technical assistance from Google for “keyword-targeted” online advertising service. The JFTC suspects Google’s conduct to be in violation of Japan’s antimonopoly law.
