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…
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…
Introduction On 23 August 2023, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) announced that it had fined Sahibinden Bilgi Teknolojileri Pazarlama ve Ticaret A.Ş. (“Sahibinden”) for abuse of dominance and required the undertaking to implement certain remedies. The TCA decided (“Sahibinden Decision”) that Sahibinden had infringed Article 6 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition…
The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) had a busy agenda in 2023 both in terms of enforcement and policy actions. Let us elaborate on some of them here. For your convenience, we have classified those in the following sections: (i) antitrust, focusing on violation in the digital markets, no-poaching agreements, resale price maintenance (ii) legislative developments…
With its decision issued on 30 March 2023 (Storytel Decision), the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) evaluated Storytel Turkey Yayıncılık Hizmetleri A.Ş.’s (Storytel) claim that some documents obtained during on-site inspections were covered by attorney-client privilege. This post presents a comparative analysis of the TCA’s approach regarding attorney-client privilege presented in the Storytel decision and the…
Introduction In line with the global trend, the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) has recently displayed a remarkable level of interest in addressing competition concerns in digital markets. Maybe being one of the months where the output of the TCA has peeked its highest, in April 2023 the TCA announced (i) the publication of the Preliminary…
Introduction If we are to summarise competition law developments of Turkey for 2022 in a few headlines, these would include the amendments to the merger control thresholds, the exceptions introduced for the technology undertakings with a view to catching killer acquisitions, the increased scrutiny over online platforms, the closer relationship between competition law and data,…
In recent years, competition authorities around the world have been scrutinising new types of behaviour that might be deemed abusive within the context of antitrust laws. Although those relating to digital markets receive the most attention, not a day passes by without a surprising decision announced by the authorities or competent courts. The decision of…
In Turkey, a Phase II review takes 228 days on average, almost eight months from the day of merger notification. Although the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) has prohibited only five proposed transactions during its 25-year tenure, both behavioural (11 cases) and structural remedies (15 cases) were imposed. The TCA conducted merger simulations in four cases,…
Introduction The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) of the UK has fined Germany-based Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (“BMW AG”), the ultimate parent company of the BMW Group, for failure to comply fully with a written information request without reasonable excuse through its decision of 6 December 2022 (“CMA Decision”). The fine includes a fixed amount…
