The amendments to the Law on the Protection of Competition, which was drafted in order to incorporate the commitment and settlement institutions in the European Union legislation into the Turkish competition law legislation and which was adopted and enacted by the General Assembly of the Parliament, entered into force upon publication in the Official Gazette.
Accordingly, it will be unlawful and prohibited for one or more undertakings to merge in such a way as to result in a significant reduction of effective competition in any goods or services market in the whole or part of the country, especially in creating a dominant position or strengthening an existing dominant position, or for any undertaking or person to acquire the assets of another undertaking or all or part of the partnership shares of another undertaking or the instruments that authorize it to have rights in management, except in the case of acquisition by inheritance.
If the Competition Board, upon notification, complaint or upon the request of the Ministry of Trade or ex officio, determines that there has been a violation of the articles “agreements, concerted practices and decisions limiting competition”, “abuse of dominant position”, “merger or acquisition” of the Law on the Protection of Competition, it will notify the relevant undertakings or associations of undertakings of the behaviors that must be fulfilled or avoided for the establishment of competition and the structural measures in the form of transferring certain activities or partnership shares or assets of the undertakings in its final decision.
Structural measures will only be applied in cases where previous behavioral measures have not yielded results. If it is determined by the final decision that the behavioral measures are not effective, the undertakings or associations of undertakings will be given at least 6 months to comply with the structural measures.
Reduction in penalty through reconciliation
Commitments will not be accepted for clear and serious violations such as price fixing between competitors, territorial or customer allocation or restriction of the amount of supply.
After the Competition Board has made a decision, it may reopen an investigation in the event that “there is a fundamental change in any element that constitutes the basis for the decision”, “the undertakings or associations of undertakings act contrary to their commitments”, or “the decision is based on incomplete, incorrect or misleading information provided by the parties”.
Within this framework, the Board will give a definite period of time to the parties to the investigation to submit a settlement text in which they accept the existence and scope of the violation. Notifications made after this deadline will not be taken into account. The investigation will be finalized with a final decision including the determination of the violation and the administrative fine.
As a result of the conciliation procedure, the administrative fine may be reduced by up to 25 percent. In the event that the process is concluded with reconciliation, the administrative fine and the issues included in the reconciliation text will not be subject to litigation by the parties to the reconciliation.
Those found to have violated the law will be notified to send their written defenses to the Board within 30 days. In response to the defenses sent by the parties, those assigned to conduct the investigation will submit an additional written opinion within 15 days, which will be communicated to all Board members and the parties concerned. The parties will have 30 days to respond to this opinion. In the event that justified reasons are presented, these periods may be extended once only and up to a maximum of one time.
In addition, the amendment also increases the number of vice presidents of the Competition Authority from two to three.
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/rekabetin-korunmasi-hakkinda-kanundaki-degisiklikler-resmi-gazetede/1887779
