The Draft Communiqué on “Commitments to be Submitted in Preliminary Investigations and Investigations Regarding Competition Restricting Agreements, Concerted Actions and Decisions and Abuse of Dominant Position” is Published for Public Opinion

According to the amendment in the Competition Law in June 2020, “Commitment” procedure has been brought and with this new procedure, which was also mentioned in our Bulletin No. 20 (on 28 June 2020), it is possible for undertakings to submit / offer a "commitment" during the preliminary investigation or investigation process for violations subject to the investigation (EXCEPT for price determination, region and customer sharing or supply restriction, which are deemed as serious violations in terms of Competition Law).

It is stated in the announcement that by this commitment practice, it is aimed at preventing any probable competition problems and saving time and resource costs.

Accordingly, relevant undertakings may offer commitments in order to eliminate the competition problems which may arise during an ongoing preliminary inquiry or investigation process. If the Board decides that the proposed commitments can resolve the competition problems, it may render these commitments binding for the relevant undertakings and decide not to initiate an investigation or to terminate an ongoing investigation. After such decision, the Board may re-launch an investigation in case there is a substantial alteration in any of the factors on which the decision was based; or if the relevant undertakings act in violation of the commitments given or if the decision was based on missing, false or misleading information presented by the parties.

It is regulated in the Law that the procedures and principles regarding the implementation of commitments shall be determined by a Communiqué issued by the Board and now, the “Draft Communiqué” prepared accordingly is opened for public opinion. Relevant parties may submit to the Board their opinions and suggestions latest by 28.12.2020.

We would like to kindly remind that the aforementioned opinions should be submitted in the format determined under the Regulation on Legislation Preparation Procedures and Principles.

We will share our evaluations on the Draft Communiqué arrangements in a separate Bulletin.