On February 27, 2023, Change the World (Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture), which had developed a business that sold solar power generation equipment in small portions, filed for bankruptcy, and on the same day, the Tokyo District Court started bankruptcy proceedings. received a decision. According to the announcement of the bankruptcy trustee, the amount of debt is about 3,843,840,000 yen.
The company was founded in February 2014 and was engaged in consulting business related to solar power plants. From July 2017, as a "Watt Store" business, we recruited small-lot division owner members mainly for farming solar power among low-voltage business projects with an interconnected output of 10 to 50 kW, and collected management fees from electricity sales income. started a business that pays the owner after deducting
While developing related apps for smartphones, they actively recruited small-lot owner members with the advertising slogan "Solar power you can buy with your smartphone." In 2022, the number of members increased through sales promotions in which miles can be earned according to the purchase price of a solar power plant through a "mile present campaign" in partnership with a major airline (Fig. 1 ) .
Figure 1 ● Change the World website that was released immediately after the start of bankruptcy proceedings
Under these circumstances, a bill to revise the Act on Deposit Transactions (hereinafter referred to as the Deposit Act) was approved and enacted in the Diet in June 2021, and the revised Deposit Act came into effect on June 1, 2022. As a result, sales deposits such as ``After selling goods, receiving deposits for more than three months, and promising to provide property benefits in relation to the deposits,'' are prohibited in principle.
Sales consignment is also called "deposit business". The most distinctive feature of the business model of this commercial law is the "deposit" in which the company entrusts the goods and rights sold to the customer, and periodically distributes the investment profit to the customer. Since the actual product is not in the hands of the customer, it is difficult for the customer to notice as long as the dividend continues, even if there is no substance to the business and the case is fraudulent. In the past, large amounts of consumer damage have been repeatedly caused by companies such as Anguraku Ranch and Japan Life .
Figure 2 Image of malicious sales consignment
(Source: Consumer Affairs Agency)
