Digital Markets and Competition Law in Turkey

The Turkish Competition Authority (RK) has aggressively turned its focus to Digital Markets. Recognizing that traditional competition tools are often too slow for the fast-paced tech sector, Turkey is implementing both ex-post enforcement and ex-ante regulations similar to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Key Investigations: E-Marketplaces

The RK has conducted sektoral inquiries and investigations into major e-commerce platforms (e.g., Trendyol, Sahibinden, Amazon TR). The main concerns are:

1. Self-Preferencing: Platforms favoring their own private-label products (PL) over third-party sellers in search rankings.
2. Data Usage: Using data collected from third-party sellers to compete against them.
3. MFN Clauses: Forcing sellers to offer the lowest price on their platform (Most Favored Nation clauses), preventing price competition elsewhere.

Recent Amendment Proposal (Turk-DMA)

Turkey is in the process of amending Law No. 4054 to introduce specific obligations for “Gatekeepers” (Significant Market Power in digital markets). The proposed rules include:

• Ban on Self-Preferencing: Platforms cannot rank their own services higher.
• Data Portability: Users must be able to move their data to other platforms easily.
• Interoperability: Platforms must allow third-party software to function with their systems.

The “Trendyol” Decision

In a landmark decision, the RK fined a major e-marketplace and imposed structural remedies, forcing it to separate its marketplace data from its own retail operations. This set a precedent that using algorithm manipulation to distort competition is a severe violation.

Conclusion

Digital companies operating in Turkey must ensure their algorithms are neutral. The “Black Box” defense (we don’t know how the AI did it) is no longer accepted by the Competition Board.

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