A New Era in the Competition Authority Investigation

With articles 3-5 of the Law on the Amendment of the Turkish Commercial Code and Certain Laws numbered 7511 (“Law No. 7511”) entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette dated 29.05.2024 amendments to Law on the Protection of Competition numbered 4054 (“Law No. 4054”) have been introduced.

In particular, the amendments made pursuant to Articles 4 and 5 of Law No. 7511 has brought major changes concerning the investigation procedures of the Turkish Competition Authority.

The amendments which are said to be introduced with the aim of enabling the Turkish Competition Authority to achieve its raison d'être of maximizing consumer welfare in a more effective and timely manner^[1] are briefly summarized hereinbelow:

• With the amendment made to the second paragraph of Article 43 of the Law No. 4054 pursuant to Article 4 of the Law No. 7511, the provisions concerning the request for the written defense of the undertakings including their defenses and explanations in relation to the findings, determinations, allegations and assessments contained in the Investigation Notice have been omitted. Therefore, the defense procedure referred to as the “First Written Defense” submitted to the Authority by undertakings in response to the Investigation Notice has been abolished.

• With the amendment made to the second paragraph of Article 45 of the Law No. 4054 pursuant to Article 5 of the Law No. 7511, the drafting of the Additional Written Opinion and the notification thereof to the parties is hereby restricted to the cases where “those charged with conducting the investigation have changed their opinions in the investigation report as a result of the written defenses received”. Hence, undertakings do not have the chance to submit the so-called “Third Written Defense” to the Authority in cases where it is not deemed necessary to prepare the Additional Written Opinion. Additionally, with the removal of the provision “In case justifiable grounds are provided, these periods may be extended only once and by one fold at the most.”, the period for the preparation of the Additional Written Opinion is restricted to 15 days while the period for the submission of the Third Written Defense is limited to 30 days.

To sum up, with this revision to the investigation procedure of the Turkish Competition Authority, an undertaking, which was previously allowed to submit a total of 3 written defenses, can now submit a single written defense in most cases, and a total of 2 written defenses in exceptional cases where an Additional Written Opinion may be provided.

 

4.6.2024