Luxury Tokyo hotels face watchdog warning over data-sharing that may have inflated prices

Japan’s competition regulator is poised to issue warnings to 15 of Tokyo’s top hotels for sharing pricing data in a way that authorities say may have unfairly distorted the capital’s luxury accommodation market and disadvantaged consumers.An investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission determined that representatives of the hotels held meetings every month to share information on their operations, including room occupancy rates, average room rates and future pricing plans, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.The JFTC concluded that the executives’ discussions may have influenced nightly rates, though it stopped short of declaring the hotels had formed a cartel to inflate profits.Still,