violation in principle regardless of the purpose or intent of the conduct, and is not justified by such purposes as to maintain appropriate price levels, to ensure the quality of goods or services, or to equalize the opportunities of being awarded contracts. (See Item 1 (Conduct that Restricts Prices) through 5 (Conduct that Restricts Entry of Firms, etc.) below.)

Note: "To substantially restrain competition means to bring about a state in which competition itself has significantly decreased and a situation has been created in which a specific firm or a group of firms can control the market by determining price, quality, volume, and various other conditions with some latitude at its or their own volition." (Decision of the Tokyo High Court, December 7, 1953).

(3) Any activity of a trade association that forces a firm to engage in conduct that constitutes an unfair trade practice violates Sec. 8 (v). (See Item 6 (Unfair Trade Practices) below)

(4) In contrast with trade association conduct that restricts prices, and so forth, as described in (2) above, conduct that restricts the variety, quality, or standards of goods or services, or the type, content, or method of business operations may not always have a direct impact on the market mechanism. Nevertheless, the issue is whether these types of conduct violate Sec. 8 (iii), (iv), or (v), and there might also be a possibility that such restrictive activities violate Sec. 8 (i) if it results in the substantial restraint of competition in a market.

In many instances, a trade association's self-regulation activities that are intended for socially beneficial purposes, and that include the establishment of standards and codes related to the business activities of constituent firms, as well as the use of and compliance with said standards and codes, pose no particular problem in light of the Antimonopoly Act. However, there may be cases in which self-regulation, depending on its content or conditions, impedes or restrains competition in terms of the diversity of goods or services or the manner in which business operations are conducted. (See Item 7 (Conduct relating to Variety, Quality, Standards, etc.) and 8 (Conduct relating to the Type, Content, Method, etc. of Business Operation) below.)

(5) Among the following categories of activities of trade associations are many types of activities that do not necessarily pose particular problems in light of the Antimonopoly Act; these include: information activities, through which trade associations collect and offer various kinds of information concerning their field; management guidance to supplement constituent firms' relative deficiency of management knowledge; and joint undertakings, in which constituent firms engage in cooperative activities.

However, if a trade association collects from or offers to constituent firms information comprised of important and specific competition-related factors (e.g., pricing), or promotes the exchange of such information among constituent firms, such information activities, depending on the content and other elements thereof, might lead to or accompany conduct that restrains competition as described in (2) above, and might pose a problem in light of the Antimonopoly Act. (See Item 9 (Information Activities) below.)

Similarly, if a trade association provides management guidance that includes setting