Dear citizens,
Digital economy is settling in the center of our lives increasingly, which affects competition policy and enforcement deeply. As the Competition Authority, we are closely following the new dynamics brought by the digital transformation, making the necessary regulations and taking the necessary initiatives to strengthen Türkiye’s position in this area.
Turkish Competition Law Legislation aims to guarantee undertakings’ and consumers’ rights and support innovation by protecting and promoting competition. I would like to emphasize, one more time, that competition is indispensable for sustainable growth and development in all sectors including digital economy.
While digital markets are developing rapidly and providing countless benefits for consumers, they also witness big platforms restricting competition and excluding competitors. The integration of competition law with digital economy is important for the creation of a fair competition environment both at the national and international level. Sometimes market definition goes beyond national borders, which increases the importance of cooperation between competition authorities.
Having set our strategy for digital economy in 2020, we accelerated our work. Within this scope, we turned our Supervision and Enforcement Department I into an expertise department and limited its area of responsibility with digital economy. In addition to numerous initial examinations, preliminary inquiries and investigations, we completed our E-Marketplace Platforms Sector Inquiry and Online Advertising Sector Inquiry. We are still working on Mobile Ecosystem Sector Inquiry Report.
Another important point is that we completed our reports about amendments to the Act no 4054 concerning digital platforms to be made by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, which are included in the Middle Term Plan. With the great efforts and two-year extensive work of 21 experts, we scanned almost the entire global literature as well as articles and commissioned public opinion polls, and we prepared our 2500-page report on the Reflections of Competition Law on Digital Transformation. The study we shared on our website is a short summary of the work in question.
Dear citizens,
I would like to mention certain highlights from the Competition Authority’s recent activities briefly.
The Impact Analysis Report, which shows the impact of Competition Board decisions on economy and which was prepared according to OECD methodology, indicates that the decisions provided benefits to consumers corresponding to 13.1 billion dollars during 2021 – 2022 period. This shows the importance of the steps and measures taken by the Authority for economy once more time.
Of the innovations we made, commitment and settlement procedures have accelerated and increased the efficiency of our interventions to competition infringements. In this way, undertakings admitting the infringement can produce structural and permanent remedies with the commitments designed at earlier stages of the investigation and can benefit from reduction of fines. Twelve of the investigations initiated after the legislation was amended were terminated with efficient commitments. On the settlement side, 92 undertakings admitting the infringement paid approximately 836 million TL administrative fines and the investigations about them were terminated. All these amendments made have contributed to making our legislation more transparent and fairer for the business community and consumers.
As the Competition Authority, our duty to protect and promote competition also gives us the responsibility for detecting competition infringements and imposing the necessary sanctions.
I would like to say that fines constitute an important mechanism for resolving competitive failures although they are not always deterrent enough as they are reactive rather than proactive in completely preventing and changing anticompetitive behavior. The high level of fines is a frequently raised subject. In order to ensure that competition is functioning in a healthy way and to prevent competition infringements that lead to serious outcomes for social welfare, penal sanctions are inevitable.
Recently, the number of our successful inquiry processes has increased thanks to our investment both in human resources and IT, which has resulted in an increase in the amount of fines. Looking at the data for the last decade, we see that 87% of the fines were imposed in the last four years, corresponding to 10.4 billion TL.
We have improved our examination capacity on digital data.
Our professional IT personnel is competent in examining mobile and desktop devices, software codes, databases, server systems and algorithms. We made examinations on the algorithms of platforms such as Trendyol and Hepsiburada. We imposed 62 million TL administrative fines as well as important obligations to Trendyol, which was found to intervene in the algorithms.
This capacity increase has naturally brought an increase in the number of investigations together with the number of on-site inspections. During the outbreak, we made significant investigations such as investigations into hospitals and supermarket chains to protect public health and economic stability.
Dear citizens,
The earthquake disaster that happened earlier this year affected us deeply and reminded us the importance of being in solidarity and taking steps quickly. We were in the region on the first day of the disaster and we took action to heal the wounds and support the economy there without losing time. We participated in the efforts for helping the injured and started taking steps to revive the economy in the region. We met the representatives from chambers of trade, exchanges and NGOs in eight cities to discuss the regional economic structure and competition conditions. The inquiries and investigations we initiated specifically for the region continue to contribute to the economic revival of the region and protect fair competition rules. This shows that besides encouraging economic development, competition law has the capacity to find rapid and efficient solutions against social and economic challenges.
Our work in competition law is not limited to theoretical principles and enforcement in general. Many of our leading decisions in practice show how the Authority shapes competition and how our activities create positive effects for consumers, businesses and markets.
Within this framework, I would like to draw your attention to some of our important decisions and activities.
- With our Google investigation, we opened the way for comparison shopping websites and local search websites.
- By removing the turnover thresholds for technology companies in mergers and acquisitions, we prevented killer acquisitions. Accordingly, Twitter acquisition should have been notified to us but it was not. Administrative fines were imposed because the acquisition was not notified.
- We enabled second-hand booksellers to switch platforms easily.
- We stopped Facebook requirement for Whatsapp users. They will not be able to use your data as they wish any more.
- We prevented Trendyol from engaging in self-preferencing by means of algorithms. We stopped discrimination.
- Florists and restaurants can work with the platforms they want under the conditions they choose and can make the campaigns they want in their stores.
- We conducted sector inquiries into e-marketplaces, online advertising, pharmaceuticals and fuel. We put sectors under the microscope and shed light on their problems.
- We cleared the way for real estate agents and car dealers to move their data from “Sahibinden” to competitors when they wish. They can move their data to “Sahibinden” if they want to.
- We prevented the hub&spoke cartel in chain supermarkets. We imposed a record fine of 2.7 billion TL. We prevented manufacturers and suppliers from intervening to shelf prices.
- We ensured that 25% of Coca-Cola’s fridges in small supermarkets and grocery stores are open to competitors. We terminated the investigation with commitments that will prevent the undertaking from abusing its dominant position.
- Similarly we opened 30% of Algida’s freezers to competitors and ended exclusivity.
- We penalized competition infringements concerning staple food such as flour, yeast and egg and terminated infringements.
- By preventing pharmaceutical giants from making agreements and forcing patients to buy expensive medicine, we saved the public budget from a load.
- We imposed periodic fines of 492 million TL to the big player in eyeglass and lens market because of not complying with the commitments.
- We detected the undertakings which determined the shelf prices, one by one, and imposed fines in the cosmetics sector.
- We made and we are making inquiries into cement, ready-mixed concrete, glass and ceramics sectors.
- We followed and found whoever blocked online sales and liberalized the market.
- We enabled the sale of bus tickets over different platforms.
- We imposed fines to four big undertakings in the fuel sector due to violations concerning resale price maintenance.
- We were submitted a commitment of 50% discount in service fees for temporary bonded storage in Ankara Esenboğa Airport.
- We stopped the excessive prices at Antalya port. We improved the competitive conditions in stuffing services.
- We detected the gentlemen’s agreement in front of the free movement of labor and we imposed fines to those. We ensured that employees could easily change their jobs and increase their individual welfare.
As it is seen, actions have been taken against infringements in the digital sector as well as many other different sectors. Target-oriented measures have been taken. In this framework, we affect undertakings’ way of doing business and increasing social awareness by fulfilling our quasi-judicial duties and carrying out competition advocacy practices devotedly. We are aiming to fight against anticompetitive interventions and barriers to entry in markets by promoting innovation based competition through all our activities, reports and decisions.
Respectfully submitted to the public.
