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Abuse of Dominant Position through Vertical Agreements
*
Legal Trainee Mehves Erdem
Introduction
Article 6 of the Act on the Protection of Competition numbered
4054 (“Competition Act”) prohibits the abuse by undertakings of their
dominant positions. The abuse of dominant position can appear both
on horizontal and vertical level.
The Guide on Vertical Agreements (“Guide”)
1
defines vertical
agreements as “
agreements executed between two or more undertak-
ings at different levels of production or distribution chain in order to
procure, sell or resell goods or services
.”
Undertakings in dominant positions execute such vertical agree-
ments to foreclose the market.
Foreclosure is “the strategic behavior of one or a group of under-
takings to restrict the entry of the competitors to downstream or
upstream markets
2
”
Undertakings voluntarily accept these vertical restrictions in case
their profit exceeds losses. The exception is the imposition of under-
takings in dominant positions.
If the competitors of an undertaking in dominant position are
pushed out of the market, it is accepted that there is an abuse of dom-
inant position.
236
NEWSLETTER 2014
*
Article of November 2014
1
For the Guide see;
http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/File/?path=ROOT/Documents/Kilavuz/kilavuz11.
pdf.
2
EKDİ, Barış
, Hâkim Durumda Bulunan Teşebbüslerin Dikey Anlaşmalar Yoluyla Piyasayı
Kapatması, Ankara 2009, p. 2009. For the book see:
http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/File/?path=ROOT/Documents/Akademik+%C3%87al%C4%B1
%C5%9Fmalar/tez115.pdf.