130 NEWSLETTER 2021 Competition Law Concerns Regarding Human Resources Practices* Merve Bakırcı Introduction Pursuant to Article 2 of the Law on Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”), “all agreements, decisions and practices that prevent, distort or restrict competition between any undertakings operating in, or affecting markets for, goods and services within the borders of the Republic of Turkey; abuse of dominance by dominant undertakings in the market; any kind of legal transactions and behaviors that are in the nature of mergers and acquisitions, and which may significantly decrease competition; and transactions concerning the measures, observations, regulations and supervisions aimed at the protection of competition,” are within the scope of Law No. 4054. Under the succeeding provision, which is Article 3, terms and concepts are defined for the purposes of the implementation of Law No. 4054, and the grounds for this article clearly stipulate that while intellectual or physical activities, or activities, which concern both, and are undertaken for a price or benefit, are defined as service. In its largest sense, the definition also includes banking, insurance, money, credit, capital, knowledge and the other elements. Having said that, the same grounds for the same Article also stipulate that “The labor market, where the principle of collective bargaining is accepted, is not included in this definition.” However, the principle of collective bargaining is interpreted as referring to unionization. To that end, in light of past and recent decisions of the Competition Board (“Board”), it is clear that the Competition Authority (“Authority”) considers labor markets within the scope of Law No. 4054. * Article of June, 2021
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjUzNjE=