TOKYO: The Japan Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday raided a subsidiary of trading house Mitsubishi Corp. for allegedly requiring clients in the construction industry not to use competitors’ services as a condition for providing its cloud services, Jiji Press learned.

The subsidiary, MC Data Plus Inc., headquartered in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, is suspected of violating the antimonopoly law.

The Mitsubishi unit, which provides electronic management services for documents related to the occupational safety and health of employees at general contractors, is believed to have urged clients to avoid using competitors’ services since 2019 or earlier.

General contractors who have contracts with MC Data Plus are believed to pay around 10 million to 25 million yen per year to the company.

The antimonopoly law prohibits “trading on exclusive terms,” or businesses making clients promise not to do business deals with a competitor.

MC Data Plus was spun off from Mitsubishi Corp. in July 2015. According to its website, the company logged sales of 4,878 million yen in the year through March 2023, and has contracts with some 95,000 companies.

JIJI Press