Is It Really Privileged? Legal Professional Privilege In Turkish Competition Law

Documents seized during dawn raids often determine the course, and sometimes the outcome, of competition law investigations. In that context, legal professional privilege ("LPP") is not merely a procedural safeguard, but one of the few meaningful limits on the extensive investigative powers of competition authorities. While both Turkish and European Union ("EU") competition law recognize LPP in principle, the actual scope of that protection remains far from settled in Türkiye, particularly when it comes to the timing and purpose of privileged communications.

This article examines the LPP contours in Turkish competition law through the decisional practice of the Turkish Competition Board ("TCB"), and the case law of the administrative courts, the Council of State and the Turkish Constitutional Court ("Constitutional Court") and contrasts this framework with EU practice. It argues that, although Turkish law broadly aligns with EU standards in excluding in-house counsel from the scope