Silence Does Not Mean Consenting To A Concerted Practice: TCA's V-Turizm Decision Reversed On Meritorious Grounds

Taking Turkey's 20-year history of the competition law practice into account, 2018 made history with the developments in administrative judicial review of the Turkish Competition Authority's ("TCA") decisions. Since 1998, no decision by the TCA whereby administrative fines were imposed based on Articles 4 (prohibiting anti-competitive agreements) and 6 (prohibiting abuse of dominance) of the Competition Law had been reversed by the Administrative Courts on meritorious grounds. This changed in the first six months of 2018. The first such decision was the Goltas Cement decision of the Ankara 10th Administrative Court, which we explained in detail in a separate article¹. This was followed by the V Turizm decision of the Ankara 11th Administrative Court. Relevant decision of the TCA and that of the Administrative Court is analyzed below.