December 2024 – In November 2024, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) took decisive steps across various industries, from cleaning products to e-commerce. Below we provide an overview of the TCA’s latest decisions, settlements, and investigations impacting competition in Turkey.
Dive into November updates
1. Settlement in the pharmaceutical industry
The TCA concluded its investigation into Menarini İlaç and Genveon İlaç with settlement agreements for both companies. These settlements come about as a part of the TCA’s ongoing investigation into (i) gentlemen's agreements with competitors regarding no-poaching of each other's employees, and (ii) anticompetitive information exchanges in the pharmaceutical sector, which was launched in November 2023. Within the same investigation, various other pharmaceutical companies, including Abdi İbrahim, GlaxoSmithKline, Bilim İlaç and Drogsan, also reached settlements with the TCA and received fines earlier this year.
Based on the settlement, (i) Menarini İlaç was fined TRY 42,148,808.07 (approximately USD 1.2 million) for violation of competition by exchanging competitively sensitive information, and (ii) Genveon İlaç was fined TRY 35,722,195.45 (approximately USD 1.02 million) for violation of competition by concluding gentlemen's agreements with competitors regarding no-poaching of each other's employees. This settlement constitutes further evidence of the TCA’s vigorous enforcement in HR-related conduct, such as employee non-poaching agreements.
2. Viking Kağıt settlement on resale price maintenance
The TCA conducted an investigation into Viking Kağıt, a company active in the cleaning products market and owner of the brands Lily, Terra, Senso, Pufla, Select and Select Nature, based on allegations of resale price maintenance towards its resellers.
The investigation concluded with a settlement, and Viking Kağıt was fined TRY 9,073,292.11 (approximately USD 260,000) with a 15% discount. The relevant investigation and the resulting settlement demonstrate that resale price maintenance behaviour continues to be on the TCA’s radar.
3. Commitments offered by Trendyol accepted by the TCA
The TCA announced that the investigation conducted against DSM Group, also known as Trendyol, was concluded with a commitment package. The relevant investigation concerned the automatic pricing algorithm offered by Trendyol to sellers using its platform. The TCA was particularly concerned that the use of the pricing algorithm by sellers could restrict price competition in the platform and result in a violation of Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition which prohibits anticompetitive agreements.
As a part of the commitment package, Trendyol:
- will continue not to mandate the use of the automatic pricing mechanism for sellers and will not offer any incentives to sellers that would result in the same result as mandating it;
- will not allow targeting specific seller(s) when defining rules under the automatic pricing mechanism;
- will remove the “Equalise to Buybox Price” option from the automatic pricing mechanism and offer sellers only the “Stay Below Buybox Price” and “Stay Above Buybox Price” options;
- will not consider the use of automatic pricing mechanism by sellers as a criterion in the functioning of the algorithm in terms of Buybox criteria;
- will inform sellers about the features of the automatic pricing mechanism, but will continue not to share with sellers the data of other sellers regarding the use of the automatic pricing mechanism;
- will make training content on the operation of the automatic pricing mechanism available to sellers and provide competition law trainings to its employees to raise awareness of the concerns and commitments under the investigation;
- will submit a report to the TCA for three years in order to monitor compliance with the commitments; and
- will implement the commitments within 60 days following the notification of the short decision to Trendyol, and all commitments will remain valid as long as the automatic pricing mechanism remains in effect.
4. Merger and acquisition transactions
In November 2024 the TCA approved 11 merger and acquisition transactions. Additionally, the TCA issued one decision indicating that the notified transaction is not subject to its approval.
New investigations and oral hearings
- Investigation of Mastercard and Visa – 21 November 2024: The TCA initiated a full-fledged investigation against (i) the Mastercard economic unity consisting of Mastercard Europe SA, MasterCard Europe SA Istanbul Liaison Office and Masterpass Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.Ş., which are ultimately controlled by Mastercard Incorporated, and (ii) the Visa economic unity consisting of Visa Europe Limited, Visa Europe Services LLC and Visa Europe Services LLC Turkey Representative Office, which are ultimately controlled by Visa Inc., for alleged violations through various exclusionary acts in the markets for card scheme services and digital wallet services.
- Investigation of Turkish seed companies – 29 November 2024: A full-fledged investigation was launched against the following Turkish seed companies operating in the hybrid industrial gherkin seed and hybrid vegetable and fruit seed markets for alleged price-fixing and/or exchanging competitively sensitive information:
- AD Rossen Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ;
- Antalya Tarım Üretim Danışmanlık ve Pazarlama AŞ;
- Bayer Tohumculuk ve Tarım Ltd. Şti.;
- Hazera Tohumculuk ve Ticaret AŞ;
- HMCLAUSE Tohumculuk Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ;
- Metgen Tohumculuk Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti.;
- Multi Tohum Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ;
- Nunhems Tohumculuk AŞ;
- Rijk Zwaan Tarım Ticaret Ltd. Şti.;
- Sakata Tarım Ürünleri ve Tohumculuk San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti.;
- Semillas Fito Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ;
- Syngenta Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ;
- Vilmorin Mikado Tohumculuk AŞ; and
- Yüksel Tohum Tarım Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ.