Harley-Davidson Japan has received a fine of 200 million Yen, 1.2 million euros in the current rate of the Japanese Fair Trade Commission. Harley-Davidson Japan is accused of having violated the Japanese monopoly ones with excessive quotums for dealers.
In July 2024, the Japanese Federal Trade Commission started a formal investigation into the subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, where a raid in the offices of Harley-Davidson Japan was made.
Harley-Davidson Japan was accused of excessive quotums for dealers who were under contract with Harley Japan, who have been in force since about 2020. According to those accusations, dealers were told that if they did not reach the ever -higher sales quota, they could lose their contract and would not be extended in the future.
This would have led to a domino effect, where dealers had no choice but to purchase engines themselves to meet the ever-heavier quotas, even the models that did not run at all. Japanese legislation subsequently labeled such engines as “unused, registered” motorcycles, which meant that they fell in value. So even if the dealers sold those engines to customers later, they often did that with losses.
Unfair commercial practices, a violation of the anti-monopoly law, has now concluded the Japanese Fair Trade Commission and Harley-Davidson Japan imposed a fine of 200 million yen (around 1.2 million euros) for this. In addition, Harley Japan is a writ of execution to put an end to these practices.
Remarkable fact in this matter is that in 2021 BMW Japan was imposed a punishment for a similar issue. Now that is not really interesting in itself, which makes it relevant, however, that the managers who worked at the BMW Japan at the time started working at Harley-Davidson Japan after the BMW case.
Two of the top managers involved in both BMW and Harley would have resigned after the aforementioned research into Harley Japan in July 2024.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.