일본형 플랫폼 자율규제 모델 - 플랫폼투명화법에 의한 P2B 자율규제의 특징과 현황 -

Abstract

In Japan, the “Act on the Improvement of Transparency and Fairness of Specific Digital Platforms”, which references the EU’s P2B regulatory legislation, was enacted by the government and has been in effect since February 1, 2021. This law is common with EU law in that it aims to improve platform transparency and fairness in P2B relations, but as a specific regulatory method, it is characterized by the fact that it advocates so-called “co-regulation” in which the government is involved in its operation to some extent based on “self-regulation” by platform operators. The core content of platform regulation under the Platform Transparency Act is that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry evaluates and announces the transparency and fairness of specific digital platforms based on a yearly self-evaluation report of “specific digital platform providers.” Rough guidelines for regulation are set in the law, and accordingly, business operators evaluate and report their implementation status on their own, and the government evaluates this and ultimately allows feedback to be made based on social reputation. The question is how to operate the evaluation by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the role of preliminary evaluation by a group of experts is practically very important under the Platform Transparency Act. In the first evaluation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducted for the first time since the recent enforcement of the law, it can be seen that the results of the preliminary evaluation by a third party composed of experts are almost directly linked to the main evaluation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Against this background, this paper reviews the institutional design characteristics of platform regulation under the Platform Transparency Act and the current status of regulation, and as a result, the characteristics of the Japanese platform self-regulation model are presented in the following four items; First, the balance between user protection and industrial promotion is maintained from the institutional design stage. Second, the institutional model of Japanese self-regulation can be summarized as joint regulation-type self-regulation or joint regulation based on self-regulation. Third, in the Japanese institutional model, preliminary evaluation by a third-party organization is of paramount importance. Fourth, the system is designed to realize autonomous feedback through the main evaluation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.