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News & Articles
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Competition Law | Articles
The TCA Imposes Fine on Doğa Koleji for Its Anti-Competitive Conducts in the Labour Market
The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) concluded its investigation into Arı İnovasyon ve Bilim Eğitim Hizmetleri AŞ (“Doğa Koleji”) regarding the claims that Doğa Koleji has engaged in anti-competitive practices with other private schools operating in the Kocaeli province, with its decision dated 03.10.2024 and numbered 24-40/948-407 (“Decision”). Doğa Koleji was alleged to have participated in collusive conduct with competing private schools, jointly determining the level of annual meal fees charged to students and restricting competition in the labour market for teaching personnel. These practices allegedly involved exchanging sensitive information about wages and job applicants, making joint hiring or no-hiring decisions, and collectively implementing wage restraint policies. Such conduct was claimed to restrict competition in terms of both service pricing and employment conditions, potentially leading to higher prices for customers and reduced job mobility for educators.
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International Trade | Articles
A Significant Update Regarding the Producer/Exporter Certificate Regulation in Türkiye: Expanded Obligations and Verification Procedures under Trade Defence Measures
TheProducer/ExporterCertificate (“Certificate”) has long served as a critical instrument in Türkiye’s implementation of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, particularly in cases where such measures are applied on a company-specific basis. For importers to benefit from preferential, lower duty rates assigned to specific foreign producers or exporters, a valid Certificate must be presented at the time of customs declaration. Otherwise, imports are subject to the higher, residual duty rate applicable to all other exporters from the same country. A recent and comprehensive update by the Turkish Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”) has introduced detailed rules governing the issuance, format, verification, and validity of the Certificate. These changes significantly increase the compliance obligations for all parties involved-importers, producer/exporters, and traders-by introducing stricter documentation requirements, formalizing verification procedures (including on-the-spot verifications), and limiting the Certificate’s validity to one year.
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Competition Law | Articles
TCA Identified Gun-jumping During Review of Subsequent Transaction (Broadcom/VMware decision)
During its review of a separate notified transaction, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) uncovered a gun-jumping violation related to Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. Specifically, in its decision dated 01.04.2024 and numbered 24-25/596-249, the Competition Board authorized KKR Management LLP to acquire all shares of VMware LLC’s End User Computing business line. However, in the course of this assessment, the TCA realized that Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware had not been notified in Türkiye, despite being reported to multiple competition authorities worldwide. This led the Board to initiate an ex officio investigation and subsequently impose a gun-jumping fine. The Broadcom/VMware Decision (dated 18.07.2024 and numbered 24-30/707-296) offers critical insights into the Board’s evaluation of gun-jumping cases, addressing key issues such as turnover calculations, procedural obligations, and the availability of possible defences.
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Competition Law | Articles
Google Finally Complies Fully With Turkish Competition Authority Obligations
Introduction Following our earlier analysis of Google’s ongoing struggle to meet the obligations set by the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”), a new decision by the TCA brings a change in the narrative. The newly published decision dated 04.06.2024 and numbered 24-24/562-236 (“Compliance Decision”), the Board now confirms that Google has remedied its non-compliance in hotel search queries within the local search services market. After in just 37 days, Google implemented the remaining measures previously found deficient, thereby ceasing the daily administrative fine. In this follow-up article, we revisit the background of the case, outline the new developments, and examine the Board’s reasoning that led to the cessation of the daily fine.
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Competition Law | Articles
The Turkish Competition Authority Decided That There Is No Procedural Benefit in Initiating Commitment Negotiations
Pursuant to the Competition Board’s (“Board”) decision dated 15.12.2022 and numbered 22-55/850-M, an investigation was initiated to determine whether Nestle Türkiye Gıda Sanayi AŞ (“Nestle”) infringed Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Competition Law”) by (i) setting the resale price of its distributors and (ii) imposing regional and customer restrictions on them. During the investigation process, Nestle requested the initiation of commitment discussions for both allegations. This request of Nestle was rejected by the Board’s decision dated 28.04.2023 and numbered 23-19/357-M. Then, within the framework of Article 11 of the Administrative Procedure Law No. 2577 (“IYUK”), Nestle requested that the Board reassess and revoke the decision to reject the request to submit a commitment, thereby enabling the commencement of commitment discussions.
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Competition Law | Articles
TCA and Gun-Jumping: Insights into Foreign-to-Foreign Transactions
Pursuant to Turkish merger control regime, mergers and acquisitions exceeding the applicable thresholds must be notified to the Turkish Competition Board (“Board”) before their implementation. According to Article 16 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Competition Law”), if such concentrations requiring authorization are realized without prior notification and approval of the Board, an administrative fine of 0.1% of the annual gross Turkish revenues of undertakings shall be imposed on natural and legal persons having the nature of an undertaking and on associations of undertakings or members of such associations. The implementation of transactions without obtaining the Board’s authorization is called “gun-jumping” and is subject to an administrative fine. Considering that the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) takes an active stance in merger control enforcement, including in global mergers and acquisitions that are completed without authorisation, this article examines the Board’s gun-jumping decisions with a particular focus on foreign-to-foreign transactions.
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