Souken's 'add 0 yen' window offer was no bargain — the windows were always free

創建 ran its '創建ペイント' exterior-painting business through its own website. During rolling promotional windows it plastered the top of the page with lines like '好評につき期間延長！4/1～4/30まで 外壁塗装の値段だけで 窓の断熱リフォーム 窓リフォーム代 追加費用実質0円！' — free window insulation, at no extra cost, but only if you signed up by the deadline.

The offer was meant to read as a limited-time bargain: hand over only the painting money and get the insulating-window retrofit thrown in for free, provided you moved before the date. In reality the same number of windows was offered free to customers who signed up after the deadline too.

On 22 September 2025 the Consumer Affairs Agency and the Fair Trade Commission's Kinki-Chūgoku-Shikoku Office issued an administrative order under the Act Against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, finding an advantageous-conditions misrepresentation (Article 5(2)): the transaction was not more favourable within the advertised window, because the free windows were available anyway.