(1) Introduction
The Turkish Competition Board (“Board”) concluded the investigation into the pricing algorithm practices of multi-category e-marketplaces and determined that the pricing algorithms used on the e-marketplace platform of Amazon Turkey Perakende Hizmetleri Limited Şirketi (“Amazon Turkiye”) did not violate Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”).1 While the Board ultimately found no infringement, Amazon Turkiye nevertheless opted to discontinue the relevant tool, committing to its complete shutdown by April 11, 2025.
The investigation focused on whether the automatic pricing algorithms available to sellers on Amazon Turkiye’s platform infringed Article 4 of Law No. 4054 by facilitating a hub-and-spoke cartel, anti-competitive agreements or the exchange of competitively sensitive information between the sellers. Following its assessment of both the technical functioning of the mechanism and its market effects, while acknowledging that