Japanese Fair Trade Regulators Raid Airbnb Office

The Japanese fair trade regulators raided the office of Airbnb Inc last month over speculations that the business violated the antitrust law.

Japanese fair trade regulators raided the office of Airbnb Inc

According to Airbnb Japan, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) carried out an on-site inspection of Airbnb. The business is cooperating with the regulator’s ongoing investigation.

The regulators apprehended the documents from Airbnb in Tokyo because of the suspicion that the company broke the antitrust rules by requesting its users to not list its properties on rival sites, according to a report.

"All hosts and partners in Japan who list properties on Airbnb are able to list them on other platforms, and we will work with the JFTC to address any questions they may have," an Airbnb representative said.

The report said that Airbnb forced some of its users to sign contracts that promise them not to use any sites other than Airbnb. Airbnb representative denied the accusation.

Airbnb competes with hotels and other traditional forms of housing from bed and breakfasts to holiday leases through helping people rent out their homes or apartments to the consumer of Airbnb and have a choice if they want to rent the whole house or just a part of it.

Together with the company’s taxi-hailing peer Uber Technologies Inc., the rise of Airbnb has seen a growing crackdown by legislators in cities like Amsterdam and Barcelona.

The hotel industry looks at Airbnb and other services as providing an unfair competition, while community groups have critiqued the site for driving up property prices and contributing to housing shortages.

In Japan, a shortage of hotel rooms in metropolitan areas and a record numbers of tourists have presented an opportunity for short-term rental providers such as Airbnb before the upcoming Olympic 

Games in 2020.

However, while the community is concerned about the noise and safety, they have presented complications to loosen the regulations on short-term rentals alongside the opposition from hotels and traditional inns.

After registering with the authorities, Japan passed a law in June that allows people to rent out their homes for a maximum of 180 days.

In the last twelve months, five million people had used its service in Japan, which makes it the most popular destination in Asia.

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