Sega Enterprises stated on Thursday that the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had inspected its offices and sales subsidiary. The FTC had suspected Sega of illicitly controlling prices of the Dreamcast console and software units at retail outlets. Sega would not comment further than this.
Recently, Sega of America came under fire from online retailers attempting to sell the Dreamcast hardware at a far-reduced price (over US$50 lower than the suggested retail price). The company informed the online retailers that if they were to sell the console at such a low price, they would not receive additional hardware units.