Eti Mah. Toros Sok. No: 15/5, Hikmet Ünal Business Centre, 06570 Çankaya / Ankara, Türkiye
Practice area
Defence before the Turkish Competition Authority, merger filings, compliance and unfair competition claims.
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Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition prohibits restrictive agreements, abuse of dominance and mergers that significantly impede competition. Fines can reach ten per cent of an undertaking’s annual gross revenue.
The Turkish Competition Authority is based in Ankara. We represent companies in preliminary inquiries and investigations, prepare them for dawn raids, file merger notifications, build compliance programmes and handle unfair competition actions under the Turkish Commercial Code.
At a glance
Holding a dominant position is lawful; abusing it is not. Typical abuses include refusing to supply, discriminating between equivalent customers, tying, and excessive or predatory pricing. Market share alone does not establish dominance — entry barriers, rivals’ strength and buyer power are assessed together, so a sound defence starts with the right relevant market definition.
Price fixing, market or customer sharing, output restrictions and bid rigging are the most serious infringements. Vertical restrictions in distribution agreements — resale price maintenance, territorial and customer restrictions — are also scrutinised. Agreements meeting certain conditions benefit from block exemptions or may obtain an individual exemption.
Mergers and acquisitions above the turnover thresholds must be notified to and cleared by the Competition Board before closing. Transactions closed without clearance are not legally valid and attract fines. Preparing the notification form and, where needed, remedies directly affects the deal timetable.
The Board may open a preliminary inquiry or investigation on complaint or of its own motion. During on-site inspections, case handlers may examine books, e-mails and all digital data; obstructing them leads to separate fines. Parties receive the investigation report and may submit written and oral defences. Board decisions can be challenged within sixty days before the Ankara administrative courts.
The first cartel member to come forward with evidence may obtain immunity; later applicants may obtain reductions. Under the settlement procedure introduced by Law No. 7246, an undertaking admitting the infringement may receive up to a 25 per cent reduction, while the commitment procedure allows competition concerns to be resolved without a finding of infringement.
Under the Turkish Commercial Code, deceptive conduct contrary to good faith — such as creating confusion with a competitor’s goods (passing off), disparagement or inducing breach of contract — is unfair competition. The injured party may seek a declaration, an injunction, removal of the effects and damages. See also intellectual property.
Check the case handlers’ authorisation, call your lawyer immediately and cooperate. Have objections — for example regarding privileged lawyer correspondence — recorded in the minutes. Deleting data or delaying the inspection leads to separate fines.
Yes. Where the harm results from an agreement, decision or gross negligence of the parties, the court may award up to three times the loss suffered (Law No. 4054, Article 58).
Discuss your competition law matter
Tell us briefly what happened and whether any deadline is running; we will explain the options and next steps. We work in English, French and Turkish.
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