This morning in Japan, it appears nothing has changed.

According to Japanese press this morning, Amazon Japan is being investigated by the country's antitrust regulator on allegations of asking vendors for a percentage of their sales revenue.

As the Nikkei reports, the Japanese arm of the U.S. e-commerce giant whose name had already appeared increasingly in discussions of market monopolies and anti-trust violations, began requesting its vendors contribute "cooperation payments" from around 2017, claiming that the contributions would be used for system upgrades and other improvements. The requested payments ranged from a few percent to well over 10% of sales prices. The company is also alleged to have requested vendors help absorb the costs of discounting goods.

Surprisingly, Nikkei adds that Amazon Japan has been struggling with rising shipping and other operational costs.