An Interesting Evaluation Of The Passive Sales Restriction By The Turkish Competition Authority

As per the Turkish competition rules, vertical agreements are governed by Article 4 of the Competition Act No.: 4054 ("Competition Act") and the Block Exemption Communiqué No: 2002/2 on Vertical Agreements ("Communiqué"). According to the Article 4 (b) (1) of the Communiqué, an active sales restriction imposed to an exclusive region or exclusive group of customers by a provider to a purchaser is authorized. The same article follows that 'introduction of restrictions in relation to regions or customer where or to whom the goods or services which are the subject of the contract shall be sold by the purchaser [involving] sales to be made by customers of the purchaser', also referred as restriction of passive sales, shall be left outside the scope of the relevant Communiqué. Thus, in principle, agreements containing passive sales restrictions are considered to not benefit from the block exemption.