Considering the increase in diversity of today’s free market system’s economic facilities, the competition law appears as a field growing in importance. As Erdem & Erdem we adopt a creative and client focused working systematic in the competition law field where new concepts emerge each day and which quickly responds to the technologic and economic improvements.

Our team of competition law professionals addresses the varying legal demands of our clients, who are confronted with a variety of and unforeseen competition law issues within the framework of the economy's complicated structure. We assist our clients with comparative analyses of competition evaluations, antitrust programs, mergers and acquisitions, contract design, and dealership systems from the perspectives of the European Union and Turkish competition legislation. Erdem & Erdem's services in competition law mainly focus on the following areas:

Execution of Processes within the Scope of Competition Investigations

Given that all companies operating in Turkey may face competition investigations at any time, we understand how critical it is to be prepared for such investigations and to be able to obtain the best legal advice at the right time. Our team represents our clients before the Competition Authority at all phases of the inquiry, combining their experience in competition law with their understanding of sectoral legislation in all types of competition investigations. Our firm also participates in all stages of any case brought against the Institution's decisions.

As Erdem & Erdem we believe that determining the correct legal strategy for the investigations that may base on various allegations such as concerted practice, price fixing, horizontal and vertical agreements including territory and client limitations is very important and beneficial. Accordingly, the determinant factor occurs as putting forward all the facts of the case in a correct manner, since under competition law the technical analyses are many in number, the foreseeability is difficult and all cases should be assessed in the context of its specific features. 

Abuse of Dominance

Companies holding the leader position in the sector that they operate in and therefore, having the power to determine the significant market dynamics are defined as the dominant undertakings. As a result of their market power, the dominant undertakings are in the center of Competition Authority’s’ activities. In that sense Erdem & Erdem provides preventive legal consultancy to its dominant clients in regard to the possible abuse of dominance concerns. It should be considered that those companies which enter into variable legal relationships each day and possess wide distributorship networks or millions of customers may also be operating in a regulated sector. Accordingly, it is seen that the companies operating in rapidly changing and highly regulated markets such as banking, energy and telecommunication are under significant competition law risks. 

We place a high value on legal protection for these businesses because we predict that even the smallest action taken by our clients in dominating positions will result in numerous complaints to the competition authorities. In this respect, dominating businesses are compelled to use extreme caution in all of their activities. In order to provide this, our competition team aims to be at least as familiar with our clients' company culture and business style, as they are with their own. Not that every action of our clients in dominating positions is viewed with concern; rather, we provide what should be done and how, and we serve them attentively in the sphere of competition law, based on our experience.

Mergers and Acquisitions

As Erdem & Erdem we frequently use our experience in private law in competition law aspects of mergers and acquisitions. We believe that conducting a merger and acquisition transaction as a whole and maintaining the same attention and care level in the competition law clearance step would result in many benefits. Additionally, in recent Competition Board decisions new concepts such as designing the establishment and operations of joint ventures, strategic cooperations including reciprocal control, exchange of information risks in regard to the minority right transfers have become familiar. In that sense, instead of using a standardized method, designing a merger and acquisition transaction in compliance with the competition law from the beginning would result many benefits. As a matter of fact, an investigation which has started on the final step of a transaction would be wearing for the parties, since it might spirit away the transaction’s expected benefits. Erdem & Erdem’s competition team’s main target is to avoid these uncertainties which might negatively impact our client’s costs and prestige’s before the financial institutions and their partners. 

Our competition team's key objective is to remove the uncertainties that will have a negative impact on our clients' costs, reputation with financial institutions, and partners before they even occur. In order to achieve this goal, we use the basic strategy of guiding our clients in the proper direction in terms of competition law and eliminating competition law sensitivities from the start of the merger-acquisition process.

Compliance and Educational Programs in Competition Law

Erdem & Erdem is driven by the fresh perspective provided by our academic studies. In this way, we put our academic expertise to work for our clients by coming up with innovative legal solutions. We keep a careful eye on contemporary concerns in the subject of competition law, where new concepts emerge on a daily basis and which is susceptible to technological and economic changes. Besides, we regularly monitor current judicial decisions and doctrine disputes in the EU and the United States, which are the primary legislation in terms of Turkish competition law, as well as changes in other countries across the world.

The Erdem & Erdem Competition Compliance Program was developed in compliance with the dynamic structure of competition legislation in order to give better service to our clients. Our compliance program, which addresses the particular structure of competition legislation in accordance with the demands of each firm, includes not constraining companies more than necessary, but rather providing a safe haven by removing legal ambiguities as much as feasible. In accordance with this program, which is based on the demands of our clients, our primary goal is to develop a program that is fit for each company's specific needs and that it can internalize. As a result, instead of viewing compliance with competition law as a troublesome and necessary field, our clients can view it as a business policy.