Obstruction Of On-Site Inspections Through Data Deletion: Competition Board Practice And The Samsung Decision

SUMMARY

The Competition Authority, under Article 15 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition, is empowered to carry out on-site inspections at enterprises and associations of enterprises whenever necessary in the course of fulfilling its duties. To ensure the effectiveness of these inspections, the Competition Board takes a strict stance against any actions that hinder or complicate this authority, and specifically regards data deletion as obstruction of an on-site inspection, regardless of the nature of the deleted data or whether it can be restored.

However, decisions show that a distinction can be made between deletions performed intentionally by employees and those carried out automatically or by system processes; when data integrity is restored afterward, this strict approach may be relaxed.