Initiatives to Ensure Legal Compliance

We take the following steps to ensure legal compliance.

  • The Consumer Affairs and Fair Business Practices Subcommittee of the CSR Management Committee has an FT (Fair Trade) Working Group. The working group is made up of a specialist division within the Legal Department of Seven & i Holdings called the FT Committee and the personnel in charge of fair trade at each Group company. Within this working group, the members share information on the latest laws and regulations as well as cases of unfair business practices at Group companies or other companies in the industry, as well as measures for improvement.
  • Each operating company has a division to ensure fair trading practices at Group companies, such as the FT Committee headed by the company president. This division is responsible for training the personnel responsible for procurement at each company concerning laws and regulations related to contracts, such as the Antimonopoly Act and Subcontract Act. The status of legal compliance at each operating company is confirmed through a monitoring survey of each company conducted by the FT Committee of Seven & i Holdings’ Legal Department.
  • In the final stage of negotiations with each business partner, to ensure there are no later disagreements between the personnel in charge of purchasing at each company and the representative of the business partner, the predetermined content of their discussions are recorded in a standardized format for each party to retain a copy.
  • Each division conducts individual employee interviews once every six months. At the individual interviews of personnel in charge of purchasing, their compliance with fair business practices is evaluated and reflected in their compensation package.
  • The “Business Partner Help Line ” is a reporting contact point operated by a third party that has been contracted by the Company and has entered a non-disclosure agreement. By verifying this line, we are working to prevent unfair business practices at Group companies before they occur, and to ensure fair business practices.

If a case of an unfair business practice occurs, or is suspected, the FT Committee of Seven & i Holdings’ Legal Department and the CSR Department work together to check the facts with the department concerned and the business partner. If any issues are found to exist within the Group, they are dealt with appropriately according to that company’s work regulations. (There were no compliance violations relating to business partners in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2015).