114 NEWSLETTER 2021 Interim Injunctions Under Competition Law: The Turkish Competition Board’s Retailers, WhatsApp and Trendyol Decisions* Merve Bakırcı Introduction Pursuant to Article 9/4 of the Law on Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”), “where serious and irreparable injuries are likely to occur before the final decision, the Board may take interim measures in order to maintain the situation before the infringement, without exceeding the scope of the final decision.” Accordingly, the Turkish Competition Board (“Board”) has the power to apply an interim injunction to investigated undertakings, where it deems irreparable injury is likely to occur. Considering the fact that investigations last around two years, the relevant provision is clearly a much-needed tool that the Board may use to prevent any probable harm arising from serious competition law concerns. The Board’s recent decisions highlighted below exhibit when and how Board uses the interim injunction tool. The Retailers’ Decision1 In its Retailers’ Decision, the Board investigated the pricing behaviors of chain stores and their suppliers during Covid-19, following applications which entered Turkish Competition Authority’s (“Authority”) records with regards to sudden and high increases in prices in nutrition and cleaning products. It was alleged that top nine chain stores had agreed on a mutual excessive pricing behavior for these products by way of an implicit co-operation and thereby were in breach of Article 4 of Law No. 4054. The Board assessed that the stores had increased their market power due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Ramadan, by taking advan- * Article of October, 2021 1 The Board’s Decision dated 07.05.2020 and No. 20-23/298-145.
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