The Turkish Competition Board has been carrying out an investigation on the matter for some while.
Finally, the Turkish Competition Board in its meeting dated 06.06.2011 and nr. 11-34/742-230 has come to the conclusion that Turkcell is in breach with Article 6 of the Law on the Protection of Competition which regulates the abuse of dominant position.
The full decision of the Competition Board has recently been announced revealing the below mentioned facts regarding the sub-distribution policy of Turkcell.
In its first finding the Turkish Competition Board indicated that Turkcell shall be regarded to be in a dominant position within the Turkish GSM services market with more than %50 market share. Based on this finding the Board remarked that the sub distributors’ undertaking to unify their interior decorations and outdoor signs in accordance with the stipulations imposed by Turkcell and the practices of Turkcell aiming to preclude the creation of an alternative distribution channel to that of the sub-distributors are in breach with paragraph (a) of the 6th article on the Law on the Protection of Competition.
<p<Para. (a) of the 6th article deals with abusive cases which aims to prevent directly or indirectly another undertaking from entering into the area of commercial activity, or actions aimed at complicating the activities of competitors in the market.
The Competition Board fined Turkcell, as a result of its above analysed breach, for %1,125 of its turnover accrued during the fiscal year 2010. However, Turkcell has the right to object to such decision before the Council of State.
Hikmet Koyuncuoglu, IDI franchising Country Expert for Turkey
