ERDEM-NEWSLETTER-2018-metin

190 NEWSLETTER 2018 Market Manipulation Offense in terms of Turkish Capital Markets Law* Att. Cansu Ozsan Capital markets enable the transfer of resources from investors to entrepreneurs and security prices on stock exchanges that affect most investors’ decisions. In order to ensure accurate, up-to-date, and healthy prices in the markets, prevention of asymmetric information, sense of confidence and price equality should be reinforced. This ar- ticle examines the manipulation offense that is defined by the legisla- tor through taking into account the aforesaid purposes and its criminal sanctions. Definition The legislator placed necessary regulations into effect through Capital Markets Law numbered 6362 (“CML”) in order to protect the retail and institutional investors from market manipulation. This offense is named as manipulation in Capital Market Law numbered 2499, which was abolished in 2012, while the term “market fraud” was preferred within Article 107 of the CML. Since this offense continues to be referred to as manipulation, in both national and international doctrine and jurisprudence, the word “manipulation” shall be also used in this article . Pursuant to several definitions in the doctrine, acts that are de- signed to (i) interfere in price mechanisms by blocking supply and demand interaction, (ii) trick people into trading a security, and (iii) keep the security price at an artificial level, are all considered to be manipulation 1 . The CPL, however, does not specify which transac- tions are referred to as manipulation. An event-based assessment shall * Article of June 2018 1 Sermaye Piyasası Kurulu, Hisse Senedi Piyasasında Manipülasyon, December 2003 p. 2.