228 / 521
law should be transposed into Turkish legislation, and thus the
Competition Act should be amended accordingly.
Harmonization with Secondary Legislation
.
The Competition Act
has been in effect since 05.11.1997. Meanwhile, new communiqués
were issued as secondary legislation and various amendments were
made in important communiqués, such as the Communiqué
Concerning the Mergers and Acquisitions Calling for the Authorization
of the Competition Board No. 2010/4
3
(“Communiqué No. 2010/4”).
Thus, the Competition Act should be reviewed in light of current
needs.
Important Novelties provided by the Draft Act
The Draft provides important amendments and novelties:
“De Minimis” Rule
.
A parallel regulation to the “
de minimis
”
practice of EU legislation is adopted under Art. 4 of the Competition
Act. In cases where thresholds like market shares and turnover deter-
mined in advance by the Competition Board (“Board”) are exceeded,
agreements, concerted practices and decisions of associations of
undertakings cannot be the subject of investigation. The Board can
enact communiqués in this regard.
The Board will then be able to concentrate on competition viola-
tions, which may have more negative effects on competition through
such an amendment. Thus, said amendment is deemed to be appropri-
ate.
Extension of the Exemption
.
Art.5 of the Competition Act, which
regulates individual exemption, is extended and the exemption provi-
sions in various articles of the Competition Act are brought together.
Exemptions may be made conditionally or related to some engage-
ments. Moreover, the Board may exclude agreements, concerted prac-
tices and/or decisions of undertakings from block exemption if it deter-
mines that they have “
incoherent
” effects on individual exemption con-
ditions.
212
NEWSLETTER 2014
3
To access to the Communiqué No. 2010/4, please see
http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/File/?path=ROOT%2fDocuments%2fTebli%C4%9F%2f2012_3.pdf (accessed on: 05.02.2014).