In the Ariake Sea, Japan's largest production area of glue, the local fishery cooperative has made it possible to write a pledge to ship all the glue to the cooperative, and the Fair Trade Commission has decided to issue a cease-and-desist order, the heaviest administrative penalty stipulated by the Antimonopoly Act, in the near future.
The suspected violations of the Antimonopoly Act are the "Saga Prefecture Ariake Sea Fisheries Cooperative Association" in Saga City and the "Kumamoto Prefecture Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives" in Kumamoto City.
According to the people involved, these two organizations are suspected of unfairly binding producers of "glue" around the Ariake Sea by forcing them to write a pledge to ship all "glue" to the cooperative.
It seems that they were asking the union to leave the subsequent sales destination and sales price to the union.
In June last year, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) conducted on-site inspections of the two organizations and continued to interview those involved, but in the near future, it has decided to issue a cease and desist order, which is the heaviest administrative penalty stipulated by the Antimonopoly Act.
If an administrative sanction is issued to a fishermen's federation or fishery cooperative for violating the Antimonopoly Act, it will be the first case since the Antimonopoly Act was enacted in 2.
On the other hand, the Japan Fair Trade Commission is also conducting on-site inspections of the Fukuoka Ariake Sea Fisheries Cooperative Federation in Yanagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, to which the producers of the same Ariake Sea "glue" are members, and the fishermen's federation has submitted a plan to acknowledge the facts and commit to measures to prevent recurrence.