162 / 516
Rebates Systems applied by the Undertaking in Dominant
Position in Competition Law
*
Att. Naciye Yılmaz
Dominant Position and Abuse of Dominant Position
The Act on the Protection of Competition (“Act”) defines domi-
nant position as
“the power of one or more undertakings in a particu-
lar market to determine economic parameters such as price, supply,
the amount of production and distribution, by acting independently of
their competitors and customers”
.
The Act prohibits
“preventing, directly or indirectly, another
undertaking from entering into the area of commercial activity, or
actions aimed at complicating the activities of competitors in the mar-
ket”
by the Article 6(a) and “making direct or indirect discrimination
by offering different terms to purchasers with equal status for the same
and equal rights, obligations and acts” by the Article 6(b) for the under-
takings in dominant position. In this framework, as the rebates, pro-
vided to some buyers, may constitute discrimination between the buy-
ers, this kind of practices are evaluated as abuse of the dominant posi-
tion and prohibited. The most significant characteristic of the rebates
systems is that rebates are subject to conditions, thus some buyers in
the relevant market benefit from the rebates while some buyers do not
1
.
Moreover, rebates may have exclusionary effects for the current com-
peting undertakings in the market and may restrict new entries to the
market for the potential competing undertakings
2
. Therefore, rebates
systems have two different anti-competitive effects: exclusion and dis-
crimination
3
.
148
NEWSLETTER 2012
*
Article of May 2012
1
Kocabaş, Bekir
,
İndirim Sistemleri ve Rekabet: Tek Taraflı Davranışlar Açısından Bir
Değerlendirme,
Rekabet Kurumu Uzmanlık Tezleri Serisi No:90, Ankara, 2009, p. 5.
2
Öz, Gamze
, Avrupa Topluluğu ve Türk Rekabet Hukukunda Hâkim Durumun Kötüye
Kullanılması,
Rekabet Kurumu Lisansüstü Tez Serisi No:4, Ankara, 2000, p. 175.
3
Sanlı, Kerem Cem
,
Rekabetin Korunması Hakkındaki Kanun’da Öngörülen Yasaklayıcı
Hükümlere Aykırı Sözleşme ve Teşebbüs Birliği Karalarının Geçersizliği,
Rekabet Kurumu
Lisansüstü Tez Serisi No:3, Ankara, 2000, p. 302.