Abuse of dominance, Double jeopardy, Ne bis in idem, Türkiye

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Introduction The Ankara Regional Administrative Court’s 8th Administrative Chamber (“Regional Court”) recently annulled the decision of the Ankara 2nd Administrative Court (“Administrative Court”)[1], in which a lawsuit against the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA”) Mey İçki-2 decision[2] was dismissed[3]. The Regional Court’s decision is of crucial importance in two ways: (i) first, as mentioned in our…

Anticompetitive agreements, Dawn raids, Labour market, Türkiye, Wage fixing

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Anti-competitive practices in the labor markets have generally not been on the radar of the competition watchdogs. Given the increase in the number of cases dealing with the labor markets within the last five years, this appears to change. The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) contributed to that shift by publishing on May 6, 2020 another…

Abuse of dominance, Anticompetitive agreements, COVID-19, Excessive pricing, Türkiye

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The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) on March 23, 2020 gave its heads up to undertakings that it was “closely following the price increases”, which it referred to as “opportunistic” during the pandemic[1]. As such, the TCA warned in its announcement that it will impose the highest fines allowed by the Turkish Competition Law on all…

Competition law, Investigations, Ne bis in idem, Türkiye

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Introduction In the previous days, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) resolved under its decision dated 26.03.2020 and numbered 20-16/234-M to open an investigation against the undertaking operating in the automotive sector in order to re-evaluate its decision dated 24.06.2009 and numbered 09-30/637-150 since it was annulled by the 13th Chamber of Council of States. Given…

COVID-19, Excessive pricing, Price gouging, Türkiye

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In April 2020, The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) initiated two separate preliminary inquiries in the protective face mask and retail sectors. These inquiries are a part of the TCA’s current patrol on anti-competitive activities in sectors that directly affect consumers during the Covid-19 outbreak. As a result of Covid-19 and its dire consequences, numerous industries…

COVID-19, Excessive pricing, Price gouging, Türkiye, Unfair practices

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Introduction While the world is dealing with novel coronavirus pandemic, many countries resorted to protectionist measures in order to preserve the quality of social life and stability of the economy from the effects caused by the outbreak. A package of measures to that end was introduced by the Turkish lawmakers via Act No. 7244 on…

Dominance, E-commerce, Türkiye

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On 07.11.2019, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) concluded its preliminary inquiry regarding Google’s[1] bidding system and decided not to initiate a full-fledged investigation. Said preliminary inquiry had been initiated upon a 28.02.2019 dated complaint made with confidentiality request claiming that: Google is in dominant position in search services, Google’s Shopping Unit and AdWords are crucial…

Most favoured customer clauses, Online food market, Türkiye

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With the developments in online services, our habits in everyday life has been changing rapidly. Nowadays, one can cater any of its needs via websites or simple smartphone apps instantly. And all these developments have also been reflected its effects on maybe one of our most common and frequent habit; grocery shopping. We experienced (and…

Pharmaceuticals, Türkiye

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Introduction On 27 September 2018, Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) published its decision[1] concerning the allegations that Roche Müstahzarları A.Ş.  (“Roche”) had violated articles 4 and 6 of the Law on the Protection of Competition (“Competition Act”). Within this scope, the TCA re-evaluated whether (i) Roche’s agreement with a pharmaceutical wholesaler, Co-Re-Na Ecza Deposu Dış. Tic….

Abuse of dominance, Türkiye

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The tech giant Google[1] has been under the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA”) scrutiny due to its practices in the market for licensable mobile operating systems and under the judicial review since July 2015. In September 2018, the TCA has finally released its short decision and imposed a fine of TRY 93 million (approximately USD 15…