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COMPETITION LAW
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The Board, throughout the investigation process conducted against
the banks, found strong evidences suggesting that banks, as a result of the
“gentleman’s agreement”, have limited institutions’ service procurement
alternatives by the nonearly termination of the protocols and that this has
resulted in the exclusivity of the banks. Moreover, the Board also found
important indications presenting that, as a result of the “gentleman’s
agreement”, the competition between banks was also restrained. Indeed,
by reason of this agreement, the amount of the promotions does not
increase in favor of consumers, thus a bank that works more actively than
others may not propose a higher and better promotional offers and win
more tenders, which led distortion of competition.
The Board, in order to confirm the strong evidences and indications
that it has found, also analyzed respectively the particular cases; Erdemir
Tender, THY Tenders, Mugla Municipality Tender and the Viransehir
Public Hospital Tender.
Erdemir Tender.
Erdemir has entered into a protocol for direct
deposit of wages to its employees respectively with Is Bankasi, Akbank,
Halkbank, Pamukbank, TEB, Tekfenbank, Sekerbank, Denizbank, HSBC
and Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi for the period of 01.08.2003 – 31.07.2005.
When the protocols were about to reach its end, Erdemir has asked new
proposals from the banks.
The Board, on the basis of the documents and information obtained
throughout the investigation, determined that the banks have made a
consensus to offer fixed amount of promotion and made their proposals
on this amount within Erdemir 2005 Wages Tender.
The Board has also determined that similar behaviors have also been
observed among banks within the aforementioned tenders where the
banks colluded to set the amount of offering bid. For instance, within
the Mugla Municipality Tender, banks, as a result of the “gentleman’s
agreement”, have not offered proposals to the consumers to choose from,
thus the tender was again won by Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi. Similarly,
Garanti Bankasi has withdrawn its proposal within the Viransehir Public
Hospital Tender, thus the tender was won by Is Bankasi.
The Board, in the light of all the examinations that it has made,
concluded that the “gentleman’s agreement” made among the banks is an