On the 25th, the Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a warning to Cover (Minato Ward, Tokyo), a video distribution company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Section, to take measures to prevent recurrence of a violation of the Subcontract Act (prohibition of redoing) for having creators make design and other corrections free of charge in relation to virtual YouTubers (VTubers) who are active online. According to the announcement, between April 2022 and December last year, the company made unreasonable demands on 23 companies commissioned to design and produce VTubers to change the character designs and movements. The company had delivered the products in accordance with the purchase order, but was ordered to redo the work a total of 243 times, with reasons such as “making the hair move more smoothly” and “the body shape was unbalanced.” The company did not pay any of the contractors for the additional work. Approximately 80% of the creators, or 19 businesses, are self-employed individuals working as “freelancers.” The original subcontractor fees set at the time of placing the order were not paid until all rework was completed, and the FTC also instructed the company on this point as a violation of the Antimonopoly Act (prohibition of delayed payment). Following the FTC’s warning, the company paid approximately 1.15 million yen in interest on the late payments to all businesses. They will also calculate the outstanding amount for the re-do work and pay it as soon as possible. The company was founded in 2016 and operates Hololive Production, a major agency for VTubers. The group has many popular characters, including Gowr Gura, a VTuber with over 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, the most in the world, and its annual sales for the fiscal year ending March 2012 reached approximately 30.1 billion yen. Source/Yomiuri Shimbun.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission has issued a warning to the management of the vtuber group “Hololive” for violating the Subcontract Act by forcing them to redo video production free of charge [256556981].
Isn’t it the person’s fault for making it carelessly? If it can be fixed, they should have done it from the beginning Of course if they submit something that’s been cut corners, they won’t pay until they produce a finished product.
Did you create a story with a character and use their emotions to get people to donate? You should investigate that kind of thing properly too, just like you would receive money.
“The original subcontractor fee, which was set at the time of ordering, was not paid until all the rework was completed.” “Following the FTC’s findings, the company paid about 1.15 million yen in interest for the late payments to all businesses.” This is crazy. The “interest on the delayed payments” for the period during which the work was reworked after delivery alone was 1.15 million yen. The total amount of “the labor fee if the rework was considered work” that they’re going to calculate from now on is going to be huge lol.
It’s an amazing world, where if you scout out some mentally unstable girls who were active on Nico Nico Live in the past and put illustrations of beautiful girls on them, creepy otakus will flock to them and spend money on them without any effort.
Creators are supposed to be an important part of business, but I wonder if things will change when they grow so rapidly and gain so much power due to COVID-19.
Comments