Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office was established in 2015 in Antalya Kepez by Lawyer Ahmet Alkan. Alkan Law Office provides legal consultancy, advocacy and mediation services to its clients in many legal processes. In the field of lawyers in Antalya, Alkan Law Office examines all aspects of a legal problem and finds the most correct solution. In order to achieve this, it provides legal consultancy and advocacy services by working with experts in the field, dealing with each problem within its own special knowledge and conditions.
Competition can be defined as the relationship between undertakings that sell the same type of goods or services to a consumer group in the same period. Competition is defined in Turkish Law as “a race that enables free economic decisions to be made between undertakings in the purchase and service markets”. Based on these definitions, Turkish Competition Law is a branch of law that includes regulatory, supervisory and prohibitive norms in order to ensure economic efficiency, to create and protect the conditions of the free market, to prevent competition violations and to eliminate competition violations. In this article, we, as Attorney Ahmet Alkan Law Office, will examine the competition law in general, together with the law number 4059 on the protection of competition.
Development of Competition Law in Turkey
Although the development of the concept of competition institution in the world dates back to almost a century, the development and legal regulations of this concept in Turkey are still quite new. The enactment of the competition law by the parliament and the creation of the Competition Authority were a requirement of the 1982 Turkish Constitution and Turkey’s policies in the 1980s. It was also a requirement in terms of Article 167 of the constitution and the Ankara Agreement signed between Turkey and the European Economic Community in 1963. As a matter of fact, this requirement has been fulfilled by the law number 4054 on the protection of competition, which entered into force on 13 December 1994. The Competition Authority, which is responsible for implementing the law, was announced with a communiqué published on 05.11.1997 and after that date, a secondary legislation for the implementation of the law, which was prepared on the basis of the European Union regulations, was quickly prepared and put into effect. Since this date, the competition authority has been ensuring the correct progress of competition in Turkey. If you want to get more detailed information about the competitive market in Turkey and you need help in this regard, you can contact Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office by clicking here. We will be happy to assist you with our expert staff.
Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition
The main purpose of the law is to prevent agreements, decisions and practices that prevent, distort or restrict competition in the goods and service markets, as well as to prevent the undertakings that dominate the market from abusing this dominance, and to ensure the continuity of the competitive market under appropriate conditions by taking the necessary regulatory and supervisory actions. We can basically divide the transactions aimed at protecting this purpose into three main points. First, agreements, practices and decisions that prevent, distort and restrict competition between all undertakings operating in or affecting the goods and service markets within the borders of Turkey; secondly, the abuse of this dominance by the undertakings that dominate the market; the third is all kinds of legal transactions in the nature of mergers and acquisitions, which aim to create a dominant position or to strengthen an existing dominant position, and as a result, which will significantly reduce competition. An enterprise is defined in Article 3 of the Law as “real and legal persons who produce, market and sell goods or services in the market, and units that can make independent decisions and form an economic whole”. In the implementation of the law, no distinction was made between public enterprises or private enterprises, in other words, no privilege was introduced for public enterprises. In addition, there is no sectoral distinction in the Law. If you want to get information about the competition conditions in Turkey in legal terms and other legal issues, you can browse the other articles on our website, click here and get more detailed information by contacting us. As Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office, we will never compromise your right to be defended with our expert staff in Competition Law.
Competition law rules are important for undertakings operating in the market. Competition law rules, whose rules of public law character are directly applicable, are among the rules on which the parties cannot freely act. Therefore, undertakings in Turkey, for example, have to decide on the terms of the contract, taking into account the rules of competition law when making a contract between them. For this reason, the rules of competition law should be known and taken into account by all undertakings engaged in economic activity.
Decisions to be taken by the Competition Board and Consequences of Competition Violations
The decisions that the Competition Board may take regarding violations of competition can be divided into interim decisions and final decisions. Decisions such as requesting information, on-site inspection decision, preliminary investigation and investigation decision, interim injunction are included in the interim decisions. Decisions such as refusal of the request to initiate a preliminary investigation or investigation, rejection of the absence of a violation as a result of the investigation, decision to end the violation upon detection of the violation, exemption, negative clearance decision, implied rejection or implied acceptance decision, administrative fines are the final decisions.
Consequences of restriction of competition in the field of private law, section 5 of the Law 56-59. Article 56 of the Law states that any agreements and decisions of associations of undertakings that are in violation of Article 4 are invalid, the performance of the acts arising from these agreements and decisions cannot be demanded, and in the event that the parties are requested to return due to the invalidity of previously fulfilled acts, it is stated in the Code of Obligations that the return debt of the parties is “without reason”. It is stated that it will be returned within the framework of Articles 79 and 80, which regulates the provisions of “enrichment” and that the return of things given for immoral purposes regulated in the Turkish Code of Obligations will not be requested. It has been decreed that Article 81 will not be applied to disputes arising from this Law. In case it is decided that mergers and acquisitions that are not notified to the Board even though they are required to be reported to the Board in Article 11 of the Law and that are learned in any way by the Board, are within the scope of Article 7 of the Law, in addition to imposing a fine, the Board decides to terminate the transaction. It is decided to return all kinds of shares or assets, if possible, to the former owners, and to assign and transfer to third parties, if this is not possible, with the terms and duration of which will be determined by the Board. You can contact Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office by clicking here to get more detailed information about every decision in your favor and against you and to learn about your rights in Turkey.
Another consequence of the restriction and violation of competition in the field of private law is compensation cases. Article 57 of the Law titled “Right to Compensation” provides that a lawsuit can be filed for compensation for damages arising from violation of the Law. In order for liability to arise in accordance with Article 57 of the Law; There must be an act in the form of an unlawful act, decision, contract or abuse of dominant position, and in this way, an element of unlawfulness occurs. (6) A loss must arise as a result of anti-competitive behavior, there must be an appropriate causal link and finally there must be a fault. In the first paragraph of Article 58 of the Law, it is stated that the injured parties can claim the difference between the price they paid and the price they would have paid if competition had not been limited. Regarding the competitor’s right to compensation, it is stated in the last sentence that all the profits that the damaged enterprises hope to obtain will be calculated by taking into account the balance sheets of the previous years. The type of loss suffered by rival undertakings is profit lost. In calculating the losses of rival undertakings, the difference between the current amount of assets of the undertakings and the amount they would have reached if competition had not been restricted is taken as basis.
The other regulation in the law regarding the calculation of the damage is the provision regarding triple compensation in the second paragraph of Article 58. According to this; If the damage is caused by the “agreements” or “decisions” or “grave negligence” of the parties, the judge may award compensation at the rate of three times the material damage suffered or the profits that are obtained or likely to be obtained by those who caused the damage, upon the request of the injured parties. Although this rule, which is incompatible with the principles of compensation law, is included in the article with the expression “three times compensation”, it also shows a kind of penal sanction, not compensation. In the last paragraph of Article 58, although it is stated that the injured person must make a request in this regard in order to award triple compensation, it is seen that the judge is given discretionary power in this matter from the expression “can be awarded”. There is no regulation in the Law regarding the statute of limitations in terms of compensation lawsuits to be filed. Here, the statute of limitations stipulated in Article 72 of the Code of Obligations will be applied. Accordingly, it is two years, ten years in any case, from the date on which the injured party learned of the damage and the perpetrator.
Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office
Antalya Lawyer Ahmet Alkan Law Office was established in Antalya Kepez in 2015 by Lawyer Ahmet Alkan. Alkan Law Office does not compromise its clients’ sacred right to defense in all areas of law, especially family and divorce law.
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