SERFED Decision: A New Precedent For Third-Party Information Exchange Practices By Association Of Undertakings

This case summary includes an analysis of the Turkish Competition Board's ("Board")Türkiye Seramik Federasyonu (Turkish Ceramics Federation) ("SERFED") decision¹ in which the Board determined that sharing of data collected from members regarding their activities with both participating members and with the public via SERFED cannot be issued a negative clearance certificate pursuant to Article 8 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition ("Law No. 4054"), but may be granted individual exemption within the scope of Article 5 of the Law No. 4054.

1. Background Information

SERFED comprises seven undertakings engaged in the production of ceramic tiles, vitrification, refractory, and raw material production. Prior to the case outlined in this article, SERFED had submitted an application for negative clearance/individual exemption to the Turkish Competition Authority ("Authority") in May 2020, and thereby, proposed obtaining aggregated data from its members