Society

Japan to regulate digital ads under law on IT giants

Apr 28 (Japan Times) - Japan plans to regulate online advertising as early as next April under the law requiring information technology giants to be more transparent following recommendations contained in a final government report on digital marketing released Tuesday.

The move could be the world’s first legislation to regulate digital advertisements if measures aimed at securing transparency and fairness in the industry are added to the law that took effect in February.

The report compiled by the Digital Market Competition Council urged IT giants to create a plan to accept third-party assessment of the effectiveness of online advertising and disclose information on wrongdoings such as illegal charges levied on advertisers.

The legislation to protect advertisers will come as Japan steps up efforts to toughen regulations on industry giants such as Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. amid concerns that such companies are taking advantage of their market dominance to mistreat merchants who offer wares on their platforms.

The tech titans are known to exercise strong influence through their search and social networking services and see digital advertising as a major source of revenue.

In some cases, advertisers face abrupt changes to terms and conditions and are charged increased fees based on illicitly inflated clicks on online advertisements.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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