Rekabet Kurumu

Regulation on Fines to Apply in Cases of Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions Limiting Competition, and Abuse of Dominant Position Published in Official Gazette The Regulation, which had been implemented by the Competition Board since 2009 to set administrative fines to impose on competition infringements, was repealed. The Regulation on Fines to Apply in Cases of Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions Limiting Competition, and Abuse of Dominant Position, which was published in the Official Gazette dated 27 December 2024 and no 32765 entered into force. The distinction between “cartel” and “other violations” in the determination of administrative fines and the lower and upper limits of base fines, which were based on this distinction were removed with the new Regulation. Aggravating factors and mitigating factors were redefined in light of the decisions of the Competition Board. According to article 16 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition, the Competition Board is authorized to apply administrative fines up to ten percent of the turnovers of the undertakings or associations of undertakings concerned in cases of agreements, concerted practices and decisions limiting competition, and abuse of dominant position. 

Investigation concerning EAE Elektrik Asansör Endüstrisi İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ Opened Upon the annulment of the decision dated 12.01.2023 and numbered 23-03/39-16, which the Competition Board took as a result of the investigation conducted upon the claim that EAE Elektrik Asansör Endüstrisi İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. made misleading and discrediting statements about its competitor’s products and made the customers buy its products, by Ankara 5th Administrative Court, in order to fulfill the requirement of the Court decision, in its meeting dated 12.12.2024, the Competition Board took the decision numbered 24-53/1184-M that an investigation shall be opened about   EAE Elektrik Asansör Endüstrisi İnşaat San. ve Tic. AŞ *Investigation decisions taken by the Competition Board are announced to the public after the decision is notified to the undertakings or associations of undertakings about which an investigation has been opened. Those announcements are made within the framework of informing the public about the decisions of the Competition Board and cannot be interpreted to mean that the undertakings or associations of undertakings under investigation violated the Act no 4054, or they are or will be subject to penal sanctions under the Act.

The Examination about “Türkiye Garanti Bankası AŞ’s Bonus Contracts” Concluded   The examination, which was made under article 13 of the Act no 4054 to determine whether it is necessary to withdraw the individual exemption granted by various decisions of the Competition Board to Bonus Contracts made by Türkiye Garanti Bankası AŞ as the program operator with program member banks within the framework of Bonus Credit Card Program Sharing, was concluded.   It was decided that Bonus Contracts cannot benefit from individual exemption since certain provisions in Bonus Contracts restrict competition more than necessary under 5(1)(d) of the Act no 4054. Accordingly, it was decided that the provisions stating that a member merchant in Bonus Program network cannot negotiate with other banks and payment institutions that are members of Bonus program within one month following the expiry of its membership contract to get an offer and cannot make a new contractual relationship should be removed from the contracts. Also, the restriction that a member merchant which has a contract on program membership with a Bonus member bank or payment institution cannot negotiate with another Bonus member bank or payment institution should be narrowed so that it will not cover the negotiations with member merchants who want to get an offer to change their service providers.   Moreover, it was decided that if Bonus program member banks leave the program, the 6-month period for converting cards for changing the Bonus cards issued by those banks so that they will not carry Bonus logo should be revised as at least nine months and the provisions that the cards in question will be closed to installment transactions and winning bonus points should be removed from the contracts.     It was also decided that the restrictions that ban Bonus Program member banks from making campaigns in a way to attract each other’s customers should be limited to the campaigns where Bonus Program member banks directly target the campaigns of other Bonus Program member banks.   Besides, it was decided that contract provisions stating that payment institutions will ensure that the member merchants to which they provide services will not make a statement that Bonus Program gives fewer rewards or is more expensive compared to other card/loyalty applications shall be removed from the contracts.   The decision stipulated that Bonus Contracts can benefit from exemption under article 5 of the Act no 4054 as long as they meet the requirements mentioned above. It was decided that Bonus Contracts which are deemed ineligible to benefit from individual exemption in their current form should be amended and notified to the Competition Board within 9 months as of the notification of the reasoned Board decision and during the same time period, the cooperation under the scope of Bonus Program shall be terminated; otherwise, an action shall be initiated against contract parties according to the Act no 4054. 

Panel about the Guidelines on Competition Infringements in Labor Markets Held A panel for discussing the provisions of the Guidelines on Competition Infringements in Labor Markets, which was adopted by the decision of the Competition Board dated 21.11.2024 and numbered 24-49/1087-RM(4), in terms of legal and economic aspects was held with the cooperation of Galatasaray University Faculty of Law and the Turkish Competition Authority on December 18, 2024 in Galatasaray University Ortaköy Campus. The panel started with the opening remarks by the President of the Turkish Competition Authority Birol KÜLE and the Dean of Galatasaray University Faculty of Law Prof. E. Murat ENGİN, and the Vice President of the Turkish Competition Authority Assoc. Prof. Hakan BİLİR presented a general assessment of the Guidelines. In the first session titled “the Assessment of the Guidelines from an Economic Perspective”, which was moderated by Prof. Zafer KAHRAMAN; Assoc. Prof. Emirali KARADOĞAN, Assoc. Prof. Selin PELEK, Dr. Bülent GÖKDEMİR and Assoc. Prof. Mustafa ULUS made assessments about the provisions of the Guidelines from an economic perspective and answered questions. Prof. E. Murat ENGİN, Dr. Sinan H. YÜKSEL, Nezir Furkan KIRAN and Özgür ÇOLPAN attended the second session titled “the Assessment of the Guidelines from a Legal Perspective” as panelists. The provisions of the Guidelines were discussed from a legal perspective and the questions raised by the participants were answered. 

The investigation about Çiçeksepeti İnternet Hizmetleri AŞ was terminated as the commitments offered were accepted According to the Competition Board (the Board) decision dated 11.01.2024 and numbered 24-03/23-M, an investigation was opened about Çiçeksepeti İnternet Hizmetleri AŞ (ÇİÇEKSEPETİ) concerning the claim that ÇİÇEKSEPETİ violated the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition by foreclosing the platform services to third party sellers and favoring its dealers. While the investigation process was ongoing, ÇİÇEKSEPETİ applied to initiate the commitment procedure and as a result of the discussions made within this scope, the final commitment text was submitted.  In the meeting of the Board dated 21.11.2024, the decision numbered 24-49/1096-466 was taken that the commitments submitted by ÇİÇEKSEPETİ shall be accepted since they are able to solve the competition problems, which stemmed from ÇİÇEKSEPETİ’s conduct and which were detected under the scope of the file, quickly realizable and efficiently applicable; the commitments in the commitment text shall be rendered binding for ÇİÇEKSEPETİ and the investigation shall be terminated. The following is stated in the final commitment text submitted by ÇİÇEKSEPETİ: 1. Third party sellers who meet certain requirements in flower and edible bouquet (bonnyfood) categories will be able to operate as third party sellers in ÇİÇEKSEPETİ platform if they request, 2. In order to provide transparency in search results, ÇİÇEKSEPETİ will announce the basic parameters that affect search ranking, in addition, an expression similar to “Seller’s choice” will be used for the products that are placed at upper positions in return for a charge in search results and users will be given options to rank the results according to certain criteria (recommended, highest price, lowest price, most liked, most reviewed, newest, best sellers). ÇİÇEKSEPETİ will notify the commitments to the third party sellers who operated under the marketplace model before by e-mail and announce that it starts to act as an intermediary in flower and bonnyfood categories to third party sellers who meet the necessary requirements by means of the panel which the sellers can access. The commitments will be binding for ÇİÇEKSEPETİ for two years.

Investigation concerning Başkent Ankara Yayıncılık Eğitim Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. ve Uzman Kariyer Kitabevi Yayın Dağıtım Eğitim ve Öğretim Hizmetleri Giyim Gıda Tic. Ltd. Şti. Concluded In the investigation which is conducted about Başkent Ankara Yayıncılık Eğitim Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. (BAŞKENT YAYINCILIK), Bilfen Yayıncılık ve Tic. AŞ (BİLFEN YAYINCILIK), Batuksan Eğitim Hizmetleri ve Yayıncılık Tic. AŞ (BATUKSAN YAYIMCILIK) and Uzman Kariyer Kitabevi Yayın Dağıtım Eğitim ve Öğretim Hizmetleri Giyim Gıda Tic. Ltd. Şti. (UZMAN YAYIN), which are operating in the area of publishing and distributing supplementary materials related to different education levels and public examinations, since they determined the resale prices of and imposed restrictions on online sales as well as region and customer restrictions to their distributors, the parties requested to submit commitments in terms of region/customer restrictions, and the investigation has been terminated in terms of the infringements in question. On the other hand, in terms of resale price maintenance, BİLFEN YAYINCILIK and BATUKSAN YAYINCILIK made a settlement request; as a result of the settlement discussions, it has been decided that the investigation shall be terminated with settlement for the relevant parties. As a result of the investigation conducted about BAŞKENT YAYINCILIK and UZMAN YAYIN, which did not make a settlement request in terms of the infringements in question, it has been decided that the parties shall be imposed administrative fines on the grounds that they violated article 4 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition by means of resale price maintenance according to the Competition Board decision dated 28.11.2024 and numbered 24-50/1134-489.

Hearing for the Investigation concerning Meram Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ to be Held on January 14, 2025 The investigation which is conducted about the claim that Meram Elektrik Dağıtım AŞ violated article 6 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition by conducting discriminative behavior in the assessment of unlicensed electricity generation applications has reached the hearing stage. The hearing in question will be held on January 14, 2025 at 10:30.  In accordance with the "Communiqué on Hearings Held before the Competition Board", complainants and third parties who want to attend the meeting to make a statement should apply to the Competition Authority together with a petition including the information and documents which show their interest in the subject matter of the meeting until the end of working hours on January 07, 2025. Those who want to attend the hearing as audience will be able to follow the meeting online. To this end, the participation form should be filled according to the instructions on the Competition Authority website, half an hour before the time of the meeting at the latest. Respectfully announced to the public. https://bit.ly/41DKPmy

Google imposed around 2.6 billion TL in fines. The Competition Board concluded the investigation it launched on the economic entity (Google) comprised of Google Reklamcılık ve Pazarlama Ltd. Şti., Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Limited and Alphabet Inc. with its decision dated 18.05.2023 and numbered 23-23/432-M in order to determine if Article 6 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition was violated in online display advertising and online ad technology services by Google. The investigation first examined the allegations that Google introduced restrictions to ensure the exclusive use of its own demand side platforms (DSPs) for purchasing the inventory of the self-owned online vide sharing platform “YouTube,” and that it prevented the validation and measurement of YouTube advertisements through independent service providers. The investigation was terminated with respect to this allegation following the acceptance of the commitments submitted which guarantee access to the YouTube inventory by those third party DSP’s defined as Qualified YouTube DSPs. The investigation also examined the allegations that Google favored its own products/services through various behavior in the online ad technology services supply chain, where it has a vertically integrated structure, and that, within that framework, Google directed the inventory purchase demand from its own DSPs to the supply side platforms (SSPs) it owns, thereby favoring its own SSP service (AdX) through the publisher ad server. In this context, the effects of Google’s aforementioned practices in the DSP and publisher ad server markets on the competition in the SSP services market were examined. After the conclusion of the investigation process, decision no 24-53/1180-509 was taken following the discussion of the file in the Board meeting of 12.12.2024, according to which A A.1     Google, which is under investigation, held dominant position in the DSP services market. A.2     No violation has been identified concerning the allegation that, in the DSP services market, Google directed the inventory purchase demands received from its own DSPs to its own supply side platform (SSP) services, B B.1     Google held dominant position in the publisher ad server services market, B.2     Google provided unfair advantage to its own SSP service, and the self-favoring practice in question complicated the operations of its competitors, B.3     Therefore Google should be imposed an administrative fine of 2,607,563,963.59 TL, B.4.    In order to terminate the violation and establish effective competition in the market, within six months following the notification of the reasoned decision, Google must provide third party SSPs conditions which may be no less favorable than those provided to its own service. bit.ly/41yVlLU

“Corporate Cooperation Protocol” signed between the Turkish Competition Authority and Kocaeli University   “Corporate Cooperation Protocol” was signed between the Turkish Competition Authority and Kocaeli University on December 11, 2024. In the ceremony held at the Rector’s Office at Kocaeli University, the President of the Turkish Competition Authority Birol KÜLE and the Rector of Kocaeli University Prof. Nuh Zafer CANTÜRK signed the protocol. The Dean of the Faculty of Law Prof. Bayram KESKİN and on behalf of the Turkish Competition Authority the Head of Strategy Development Department Metehan HACIMUSTAFAOĞLU and Deputy Head of the Department İbrahim Hilmi KOÇAK also attended the ceremony. The Protocol signed sets the principles of cooperation concerning education, training, joint studies, research and publications to be realized based on mutual cooperation between the Turkish Competition Authority and Kocaeli University. 

The Panel on the Assessment of the Guidelines on Competition Infringements in Labor Markets, which is organized by the Turkish Competition Authority and Galatasaray University Faculty of Law, will be held on December 18, 2024 between 13:00 and 17:45, with the opening speeches by the President of the Turkish Competition Authority Mr. Birol KÜLE and the Rector of Galatasaray University Prof. A. Muhammed ULUDAĞ, and a general assessment of the Guidelines by the Vice President of the Turkish Competition Authority Assoc. Prof. Hakan BİLİR.