Specified Commercial Transactions Act

Outline of the Specified Commercial Transactions Act

1.Administrative Controls

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act performs the following control on business operators according to the characteristics of each type of transaction in terms of the provision of appropriate information to consumers.

A violation of the Specified Commercial Transactions Act is subject to an instruction of business improvement, administrative disposition of business suspension order or penalties.

Obligation of clear indication of names

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act obliges a business operator to inform consumers of its name, or the fact that its purpose is to solicit the consumers, prior to solicitation.

Prohibition of unjust solicitation

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act prohibits the misrepresentation of prices or payment conditions, or intentional failure to disclose them, and prohibits solicitation by using intimidation to overwhelm a consumer.

Advertising control

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act obliges business operators to display important matters when placing an advertisement, and prohibits false or misleading advertisements.

Obligation of document delivery

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act obliges business operators to deliver a document that contains important matters upon conclusion of a contract.

2.Civil Rules

In order to enhance its functions as a law to prevent problems between consumers and business operators or to facilitate the provision of remedies, the Specified Commercial Transactions Act allows the cancellation or rescission of a contract by a consumer (cooling-off), and specifies rules that limit unreasonable claims for damages by business operators.

Cooling-off

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act allows "cooling-off." Cooling-off means the unconditional cancellation of a contract after making an offer for a contract or concluding a contract, within a certain period(*) after receiving documents specified in laws.

(*)8 days for Door-to-Door Sales, Telemarketing Sales, Provision of Specified Continuous Services and Door-to-Door Purchase; 20 days for Multilevel Marketing Transactions and Business Opportunity Sales Transactions.

There are no provisions of cooling-off for Mail Order Sales.

Rescission of the manifested intention

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act allows consumers to rescind their manifested intention to offer a contract or to accept such offer,when they manifested such intention under misunderstanding as a result of a business operator's misrepresentation or intentional failure to disclose facts.

Limitation to the amount of damages

The Specified Commercial Transactions Act sets an upper limit to the amount of damages which business operators may claim in cases such as when consumers cancel a contract midterm.

Act

Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (Act No. 57 of 1976) (Last amendment: April 25, 2014)