Two-minute Recap of Competition Law Matters in Türkiye February 2025

Impact Analysis Report 2023-2024 Published

The TCA prepared a report to analyze the impact of its decisions on consumer welfare between 2023 and 2024. The case study concerned decisions related to cartels, resale price maintenance, abuse of dominance and m&a transactions that are approved conditionally.

The TCA states that 111 decisions are analyzed and “conservative” and “OECD presumption” methods are used in calculations:

»  Conservative approach: The benefit to consumers is stated to be 48.26 billion TL for 2023 and 29.16 billion in 2024.

»  OECD approach: The benefit to consumers is stated to be 128.57 billion TL in 2023 and 83.65 billion TL in 2024.

The English version of the announcement can be reached via this link.

High Calorie Fine for Frito Lay

The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) imposed an administrative fine of approx. EUR 35.93 million on Frito Lay for its exclusivity practices in packaged chips market.

According to the announcement on the TCA’s website, practices such as giving free products or gifts and offering discounts on products were applied in such a way that they led to de facto exclusivity. Behavioral remedies were decided, including the termination of all discounts, rebates, and other financial benefits provided to retail points, adding a precondition to the incentive system for Frito Lay employees that they can only advise sales points regarding products they sell, and continuous information must be provided to employees.

Interim Measures to Sahibinden

The TCA imposed interim measures to dominant platform “Sahibinden” within the scope of its investigation concerning alleged violation by way of using the user data obtained in the markets for

i. online platform service for corporate members’ vehicle sales” and

ii. “online platform service for individual members’ vehicle sales” in the market for online second-hand vehicle purchase and sale services.

The TCA states that it discussed Sahibinden’s data combination practices and found the data combination problematic. On this token, the following interim measures are deployed:

»  The displays related to Otobid service on Sahibinden’s home page will not be designed in a way to precede the option to give ads,

»  Directing individual users at the stage of giving ads will be prevented,

»  All the necessary organizational, operational, administrative and technical measures will be taken to prevent the use of all data/information including user and ad information/data obtained by means of online platform service for corporate members’ vehicle sales and online platform service for individual members’ vehicle sales in the market for online second-hand vehicle purchase and sale services.

What a Turnover! Supermarket BIM Fined for Obstruction of On-site Inspection

BIM, one of Turkey’s largest retail groups, is fined for approx. EUR 33.72 million for obstructing the on-site inspection. Turkish competition law envisages an automatic fine of 0.5%.

The TCA states that a BIM executive deleted data during the on-site inspection, which led to the fine. The TCA usually disregards whether the deleted data carries importance or even related to the file. This is also the opinion of the courts.

TCA Approves Pharma Deal

On April 5, 2024, Eczacıbaşı announced that it had signed a Share Transfer Agreement to sell its 50% stake in Eczacıbaşı Monrol to Curium International. The deal was taken to a phase II review by the TCA.

With a recent announcement by Eczacıbaşı on February 21, 2025, the company stated that the deal is approved conditionally with the commitments offered by Curium. Eczacıbaşı’s statement can be reached via this link.