From 23 September 2021 to 28 May 2025, Socie World ran esthetic salon services under the 'エステティックサロン ソシエ' brand, listing coupons on the HOT PEPPER Beauty website. One example offered a full-body anti-oedema course '¥31,185 → ¥4,400, valid until end of May 2025'.
The deadline was a fiction: customers who booked after the stated expiry could still receive the service at the same or a larger discount. The 'valid until' framing falsely suggested the cut price was only available within the window, pressuring bookings.
On 3 March 2026 the Consumer Affairs Agency certified Socie World's commitment plan under Article 31 of the Premiums and Representations Act, for a suspected violation of Article 5(2). The plan included a board resolution, notifying consumers, recurrence-prevention measures, and refunding part of the amount paid by affected customers.
The certification explicitly noted it did not constitute a finding that Socie World had violated the Act — the commitment route resolves the suspected violation without a formal corrective order.
The salon kept the ¥31,185 discount after the deadline, so the urgency was manufactured; the commitment plan refunded part of what customers paid.
A fake expiry date turned a standing discount into an artificial rush to book
The deadline was the sales mechanism, so the lie was the pitch
Running the same fiction for nearly four years made it a permanent fixture of the salon's coupons
A 'valid until' date is a promise about availability. When the same discount still applies after the deadline, the urgency is manufactured — and manufacturing urgency is what a salon had to unwind.
The commitment plan required a board resolution to stop and not repeat the practice, consumer notification, prevention measures, and partial refunds to customers who used the coupons during the period. Because the CAA certified rather than ordered, the case resolved without a formal violation finding.
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