Japanese ad firm punished over Tokyo Olympics bid-rigging

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Japanese court fined advertising firm Dentsu Group Inc. 300 million yen ($1.94 million) for its role in bid-rigging related to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The Tokyo District Court also sentenced former Dentsu executive Koji Hemmi to two years in prison for rigging bids on contracts to plan test events and manage venues for the 2021 Summer Games, Kyodo News reported Thursday.

During the trial, Dentsu accepted its involvement in rigging bids for contracts totaling over 500 million yen ($3.2 million) to plan and manage pre-game test events.

However, the company denied conspiring with others to limit transactions related to approximately 43.1 billion yen ($279 million) in contracts for the games' operations.

The company's appeal was rejected, as the court ruled that the planning of the test events and the management of the games were effectively both restricted competitions.

Dentsu was the third of six companies to be convicted for alleged bid-rigging in connection with the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Japan hosted the Tokyo Games in 2021, which were originally scheduled for the summer of 2020 but postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.