Hope at Last for Some Flexibility in Review of Ancillary Restraints

Unlike EU competition law practice, where the issue of ancillary restraints is considered only at the request of a notifying party, the precedents set by the Turkish Competition Authority have long established that it must evaluate and render an opinion on the existence or non-existence of the ancillary status of any non-compete obligation in the transaction documents of all notifications.

In addition to the fact that it is not possible to select 'not applicable' for this question on the notification form, thereby leaving room for self-evaluation, the authority is increasingly robust and rigid on the evaluation of ancillary restraints. The Competition Board has adopted rules stemming from the EU competition law principles applicable to ancillary restraints; however, recently the board has frequently demonstrated that its rules of thumb are becoming constant, inflexible principles. The board has also taken the same approach to the ancillary restraint aspects of all