Digital Evidence In Turkish Competition Law

In a recent article we examined the general concerns stemming from the conflict between competition authorities' need to use digital evidence and the protection of private and privileged information. We explained how a legal framework that could best reconcile these interests should be created. In this article, we focus on the situation in Turkey.

Like many competition authorities around the world, digital evidence is very important for the cartel investigations of the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA). Most of the more recent infringement findings were based on digital evidence showing anti-competitive communication between competitors. For now, the rapporteurs of the TCA examine electronic devices only within the premises of the companies being investigated during on-the-spot inspections (or dawn raids).