E-commerce site Rakuten Inc. notified sellers Tuesday that it will stop all sales of whale and dolphin meat at the end of the month, according to company officials and other sources.
The new policy comes on the heels of a scathing report released by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency in March that blasted Rakuten for allowing its merchants to sell whale meat and elephant ivory. The report was followed by a social media campaign against the practice, conducted on Twitter and Facebook.
Rakuten sent the message a day after the International Court of Justice ordered Japan to stop its whaling activities in the Southern Ocean near Australia.