The Consumer Affairs Agency has ordered Japan Gas Co., a gas and electricity retailer in Tokyo, to suspend some of its operations, such as soliciting door-to-door sales, for three months from 25 days, alleging that it had been soliciting electricity and gas with false claims such as "cheaper" when contracting for electricity and gas.
The order was received by Japan Gas Co., Ltd., which is headquartered in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
According to the Consumer Affairs Agency, since March 2021,
this company has not clarified the purpose of soliciting contracts, persistently solicited consumers who have indicated that they will not sign contracts,
and told lies
such as "it will be cheaper". It means that a violation of the Specified Commercial Transactions Law has been recognized.
Specifically, the door-to-door salesperson continued to solicit by telling the consumer that "it will be easy" and "please show me the meter reading slip" even though the consumer refused to conclude the contract, and also said "it will be cheaper" and "on average over one year, it is more advantageous to switch." There have been cases of lying about reducing electricity bills throughout the year.
For this reason, the Consumer Affairs Agency ordered companies to suspend some of their operations, such as solicitation through door-to-door sales, for three months on March 3, and instructed them to develop a system to prevent recurrence.
Regarding the disciplinary action Japan Gas said, "We take this disposition seriously and will pay further attention to compliance in future business activities. We will continue to assert our views," the company announced on its website.