Japan's JFTC makes Amazon show the cheapest offer on every product page

Japan's JFTC makes Amazon show the cheapest offer to sellers' benefit

11 November 2026: Japan's Fair Trade Commission has approved a plan under which Amazon Japan will show the lowest-priced offer on a product page even when no seller qualifies for the "Featured Offer", ending a practice the regulator says pushed sellers to match the cheapest price found at rival online stores. The measure runs for five years from when it starts, checked by a monitor the JFTC must approve.

Not yet independently verified. The JFTC release gives no date on which the new display goes live, and we have not seen a statement from Amazon Japan or the name of the monitor. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

How the Featured Offer rule worked

On Amazon.co.jp each product has one detail page, and that page shows a single seller's offer as the Featured Offer, with the Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons. Since September 2019 an algorithm has decided eligibility: a seller's price, including shipping and minus points, had to be at or below the "Competitive Price", which the JFTC describes as the lowest price of the same product at a considerable number of online stores that Amazon Japan treats as substitutes.

When no seller met that bar, no offer was shown on the detail page at all, not even the cheapest one on Amazon itself; other offers sat on a separate All Offers page that most shoppers never open. Sellers above the Competitive Price were told so through Seller Central or by email, and told what they had to do to qualify.

Why the regulator objected

The JFTC suspected a breach of Article 19 of the Antimonopoly Act, trading on restrictive terms. Its reasoning was that sellers had little choice but to price at or below the Competitive Price, which restricted their freedom to set prices, blunted rival marketplaces' own promotions, and could lead sellers to ask other stores to raise their prices, or stop supplying them, so that Amazon's benchmark would rise. It issued a Notice of Commitment Procedures on 4 November, Amazon Japan submitted its plan, and the commission approved it. Approval, it stresses, is not a finding that the law was broken.

What the plan commits Amazon Japan to

• Where no Featured Offer is shown, display the lowest-priced available offer, including shipping, with its delivery terms, shipper and seller and a way to buy, readily visible on the detail page.
• Explain the change to sellers and consumers on help pages, and notify sellers.
• Keep the display for five years from the date it starts.
• Adopt a compliance code on seller pricing, with periodic staff training and legal audits.
• Have a JFTC-approved third party monitor all of it and report each year.

If the JFTC finds the plan is not being carried out, it will revoke the approval and resume its investigation. For marketplace sellers in Japan, and the repricing tools they use to chase the Featured Offer, the change means a listing priced above rival stores can still be seen and bought from the product page.

Sources

• Japan Fair Trade Commission: JFTC Approves the Commitment Plan Submitted by Amazon Japan G.K., 11 November 2026