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return for his obligations and investments that he has made. Along with
the provisions that require the producer to conclude a distribution
agreement with another party within the same region, provisions pro-
hibiting the producer, himself, from procuring goods within the same
region may also be considered under exclusivity clauses. In the case
where all, or a significant amount, of producers applying the exclusive
distribution system, these applications may expedite anti-competitive
cooperation. As mentioned above, the Competition Act prohibits, in
principle, this kind of cooperation; however, an exemption regarding
that system is granted to a certain extent.
As per the Article 2 of Communiqué No. 2002/2, the “
exemption
granted by this Communiqué shall apply in the event that the market
share of the provider in the relevant market in which it provides the
goods or services that are the subject of the vertical agreement does
not exceed 40%. For those vertical agreements involving an exclusive
supply obligation, an exemption applies on the condition that the mar-
ket share of the buyer in the relevant market in which it purchases the
goods and services that are the subject of the vertical agreement does
not exceed 40%.
”
The exclusivity granted for the distributor shall be granted an
exemption, provided that the market shares of the producer and the dis-
tributor (in case of an exclusive supply obligation) do not exceed 40%
of the relevant goods or services market. Moreover, as per Article 4/b
of Communiqué No. 2002/2, the introduction of restrictions in relation
to regions or customers where, or to whom, the goods or services that
are the subject of the contract shall be sold by the purchaser, other than
the following cases, shall block the grant of exemption. The agreement
shall be subject to a grant of exemption if one of the exceptions listed
in the related article is present. One of these exceptions is to assign to
a purchaser an exclusive region, or exclusive group or customers, and
restrict the active sales to this region or group of customers for other
customers and purchasers.
Resale Price Maintenance
Article 4/I/a of Communiqué No. 2002/2 leaves the provisions that
prohibit freedom of the distributor to determine his own price scale
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NEWSLETTER 2015