Dawn raids, Investigations, Procedures, Türkiye

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The power to conduct unannounced on-site inspections, commonly known as dawn raids, remains one of the most effective tools available to competition authorities in detecting anti-competitive practices. However, the digital transformation of business operations has introduced new complexities to these on-site inspections, particularly regarding the handling and preservation of electronic evidence. Recent decisions by the…

Antitrust, Türkiye

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Introduction In recent years, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has markedly intensified its scrutiny of undertakings operating in the cosmetics sector with greater frequency, predominantly based on allegations of resale price maintenance and the restriction of online sales in this industry. In most of these investigations, the relevant undertakings have admitted the violation and applied…

Automotive, Cartels, Information exchange, Türkiye

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Introduction There has always been a thin line between legitimate market research and potentially anticompetitive information exchanges. Caselaw on such matters is of a particular importance. On 01 January 2023, a preliminary inquiry into several undertakings active in the light and medium class and heavy commercial vehicles market[1] was initiated to determine whether these undertakings…

Anticompetitive agreements, Information exchange, Trade associations, Türkiye

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Introduction The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has rendered several decisions in recent years concerning the exchange of competitively sensitive information. A significant number of these decisions have involved negative clearance/exemption applications made to the TCA by undertakings seeking to lawfully exchange information among themselves. In this regard, the Turkish Construction Equipment Distributors and Manufacturers Association[1]…

Dawn raids, Investigations, Türkiye

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The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) has rendered a number of decisions, particularly in recent years, on whether on-site inspections have been hindered or complicated. These include two recent decisions on D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler ve Ticaret A.Ş. (“Hepsiburada“), one of the largest e-marketplaces in Turkey. In the first of these decisions, the TCA examined whether the…

Information exchange, Pricing, Standard of Proof, Türkiye

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Introduction The automotive sector has been on the radar of the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) for a long time. In this sense, the TCA conducted an investigation (“Investigation”) regarding the allegations that some undertakings operating in the first-hand and second-hand automotive markets violated Law. No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Competition Law”) via stockpiling…

Standard of Proof, Türkiye

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The Ankara Regional Administrative Court 8th Administrative Chamber (“Regional Court“)[1] recently ruled for the stay of execution of the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA“) cartel decision[2] which has imposed on two undertakings active in the chemicals market an administrative monetary fine for violation of the Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of…

Merger control, Türkiye

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Recently, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has published its reasoned decision in which it conditionally cleared the merger transaction[1], planned through the incorporation of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (“FCA”) and Peugeot S.A. (“PSA”) into FCA. In this regard, especially two points have aroused curiosity: (i) what would be the competitive concerns that may arise after…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Algorithms, Google, Türkiye

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Introduction In the previous days, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has published its reasoned decision[1]The TCA’s dated 12.11.2020 and numbered 20-49/675-295. regarding the investigation conducted against Google.[2]It is the economic entity composed of Google Reklamcılık ve Pazarlama Ltd. Şti., Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Alphabet Inc. The decision comprises of the…

Digital markets, E-commerce, Sector inquiries, Türkiye

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Recent developments in digitalization have triggered the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) to scrutinize more closely e-marketplace business models. The TCA has carried out a sector inquiry on e-marketplaces for this purpose and a preliminary report (“Report”) has been published on the official website of the TCA on May 7, 2021, in which a wide range…