06.ANA METIN ingilizce.18

Protection of Competition”

, which was submitted to public

opinion by being published in the official website of the

Authority on 20.01.2014. In light of the above-stated, the arti-

cle of the Draft Act amending Article of the Competition Act on

penal sanctions (Art. 16 of the Competition Act) should be

amended and should foresee that the annual gross revenue gen-

erated in the line of business, where the violation has occurred,

should be taken into consideration in the determination of the

fine.

Additionally, both the Competition Act and the Draft Act state

that the annual gross revenue “

which was generated by the end

of the financial year preceding the decision, or which was gen-

erated by the end of the financial year closest to the date of the

decision

” should be taken into account. However, EU legisla-

tion states that the annual gross revenue, which was generated

during the last full business year of its participation in the

infringement, should be taken into consideration. There is no

doubt that EU legislation is more equitable since the fine may

be proportional to the competition violation.

•

Legal Sanction

As per the Draft Act, all kinds of violations of

competition (agreements, concerted practices and decisions and

practices of associations of undertakings in contradiction with

competition law, abuse of dominant position and distortion of

competition through mergers and acquisitions) are invalid. The

Competition Act, contrary to the Draft Act, states that only

agreements, concerted practices and decisions and practices of

associations of undertakings are invalid. The amendment made

with the Draft Act is appropriate since it includes all kinds of

violation of competition. As also stated above, “invalidity”

should be understood as “absolute nullity” in competition law.

In other words, the agreement, concerted practice or merger and

acquisition should be considered as never having occurred and

thus, the competitive environment in place before the violation

should be re-established.

216

NEWSLETTER 2014

To access to the Draft Regulation on Fines to be imposed in cases of Violation of the Act on the

Protection of Competition, please see

VrahMk8KfxDspf7tQ==-H7deC+LxBI8= (accessed on: 06.02.2014).