The Competition Board Announced Its Final Decision Regarding the Investigation Conducted Against Certain Undertakings Through Gentlemen's Agreements in the Labor Market

02.08.2023 İdil Serra Firidin
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Turkish Competition Board (Board) announced its final decision (Decision) as a result of the investigation conducted against certain undertakings through gentlemen’s agreement pursuant to the Board decisions dated 01.04.2021 and numbered 21-18/213-M, dated 05.08.2021 and numbered 21-37/527-M, dated 16.12.2021 and numbered 21- 61/875-M.  

During the investigation process, it was examined whether the undertakings party to the investigation had entered into non-poaching agreements to prevent the employment of each other's employees and to restrict employee mobility. The investigation process was concluded by settlement for 11 undertakings within the scope of the investigation, and the decision is announced for the undertakings against which the investigation process continued.

In this context, the Board decided that,

  • Sixteen undertakings, against which the investigation was conducted, violated Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Law No. 4054) by becoming a party to anti-competitive agreements and the mentioned actions cannot benefit from individual exemption within the scope of Article 5 of the Law No. 4054, therefore, the undertakings were imposed administrative fines over their annual gross revenues;
  • However, since it has not been determined that the remaining twenty-one undertakings have violated Article 4 of Law No. 4054 within the framework of the allegations in the case file, it is not necessary to impose an administrative fine.

This Decision can be appealed to the Ankara Administrative Courts.

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