The Turkish Competition Board (the “Board”) announced that it has initiated a full-fledged investigation on 4 undertakings operating as intermediary service providers in the market for purchase and sales of second-hand passenger cars through online platforms with its decision numbered 22-33/528-M, based on the allegations that such undertakings have violated the Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (the “Law”).
Article 4 of the Law prohibits all agreements, decisions and concerted practices between undertakings and the associations of undertakings which have or may have an effect of prevention, restriction or distortion of the competition. The official announcement of the Turkish Competition Authority which may be accessed
here, does not include any details on the reasons for initiation of the investigation or the concerted practices which may constitute a violation, but only indicates that the information and documents obtained through the preliminary inquiry phase were sufficient to proceed further with a full-fledged investigation. There are news covering that the investigation is based on the allegations that such undertakings were agreeing on the words appearing on online search engine results to prevent the consumers from visiting the websites of other competitors. However, please note that such allegations are merely speculations and the Board itself has not made an official announcement on the grounds for initiating an investigation.
We are closely monitoring the upcoming developments in the e-commerce aspect of the Turkish Competition Law, please stay tuned for the most recent news.
MORAL I KINIKOĞLU I PAMUKKALE I KÖKENEK
Duygu Bozkurt Kadirhan, Senior Associate
Selin İvit, Associate