Japanese news outlets have legal grounds to jointly negotiate contracts on the use of their articles on sites run by IT giants, including Yahoo Japan Corp., the country's antitrust watchdog said Wednesday.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission said media companies would not be violating the antimonopoly law by asking to see the revenue IT firms generate from operating news sites or by cooperating in seeking a standardized written contract. Distribution fees are based on the level of revenue.
But the commission did say it could not allow media firms to limit competition by jointly deciding distribution fees.