Merger Remedies of Equity Joint Ventures in Japan

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530064
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social law
• Research Institution: Tokai University
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI KYOZO 東海大学, 専門職大学院実務法学研究科, 教授 (00317827)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): DOI Noriyuki 関西学院大学, 経済学部, 教授 (60098431)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 共同出資会社 / 企業結合 / 独占禁止法 / 競争制限効果 / 問題解消措置 / 排除措置 / 情報共有 / 共同出資会社のライフサイクル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Equity joint ventures may have different features from mergers and acquisitions which result in single firm. In particular, they may induce competition-restricting effects through cooperative behavior between their parent firms. In US and EU, although the establishment of joint venture firms is in principle approved following the structural remedy consideration, the past experiences suggest that in practice there are more cases in which both structural and behavioral remedies have been applied.
On the other hand in Japan, the content of remedy is not clearly explained, and in practice remedy has been no enforced. In such policy situation, many joint ventures have been approved. Also, in particular large diversified firms, parent firms, frequently separated from their corporation and then integrated their respective whole division of the same business as joint venture. Then there may be larger antitrust concern.

Free Research Field

社会法学・経済法