The Antimonopoly Act (Japan)

The Antimonopoly Act clarifies the application of independent contractors. If a company employs a worker, the relationship between the company (employer) and the employee (worker) will be regulated by labor-related laws and regulations such as the Labor Standards Law. On the other hand, the relationship between a “service provider,” such as freelance engineers or entertainers and athletes, and “service requesters,” such as a client, an entertainment agency, a sports team, is Business-to-Business so it will be a subject to the Antimonopoly Act. It has been considered that independent contractors are enterprises, and that the Antimonopoly Act would apply to transactions between enterprises, but the February 2018 study group report “Human Resources and Competition Policy” explained the relationship between the Labor Standards Law and The Antimonopoly Act. Based on current labor market conditions, the report recommends that, in the future, conditions should be applied individually under the Antimonopoly Act rather than based on the judgment of whether a person is an “employee or self-employed” or whether they have a “labor contract or not.