Insights

The Communiqué on Commitments for Preliminary Investigations and Investigations on Anticompetitive Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions, and Abuse of Dominant Position (“Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 16.03.2021 and numbered 31425. The Communiqué set the procedures and principles regarding the submission of commitments to Competition Authority (“Authority”).

This Communiqué; consists of commitments submitted by undertakings and association of undertakings with the aim of eliminating competition concerns that arise within the scope of Article 4 (Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions Restricting Competition) or Article 6 (Abuse of Dominance) of Law numbered 4054, except from clear and gross infringements.

In line with this, the general framework set by the Communiqué are summarized below:

• Parties who demand finalization of an investigation carried out against themselves can request to submit commitments during the preliminary investigation or full-fledged investigation process. The request to submit commitments during the full-fledged investigations shall be made in writing to the Authority within three months after being served with the notification of investigation.
• Competition Board (“Board”) evaluates the commitment requests of the parties and will decide either to initiate the commitment negotiations or to reject the commitment request. The commitment negotiations can be made orally or in writing.
• If the parties decide to submit commitments after the commitment negotiations, the commitment text will be submitted to the Authority after clearing out the trade secrets and confidential information.
• The commitments to be submitted shall be clear and straightforward, and shall not include alternative commitments. Moreover, the commitments shall be; proportionate to the competition concerns, able to remedy those concerns, performed within a short time period and effectively applicable. General declarations of the parties stating that they will comply with Law numbered 4054 shall not qualify as commitments.
• Behavioral and structural commitments can be submitted alone or together, depending on the competition concerns.
• If Board decides that competition concerns can be remedied via commitments, then Board can decide to make those commitments binding for the parties, and either not to initiate an investigation or to finalize an investigation that has been opened. Such decision shall not include a determination on whether the agreement or practice that raised competition concerns forms an infringement or not.
• The Communiqué also rules that submitted commitments will be observed by the Board via various methods.

The Communiqué enters into force through publication and will apply to ongoing investigations as of the date it entered into force.

You may access the full text of the Communiqué here