The Turkish Competition Authority Wants To Take "a Quick Look" At Employees' Personal Mobile Devices

October 2020 – Overview of recently issued "Guidelines for the Examination of Digital Data during On-site Inspections"

The Turkish Competition Authority (the "TCA") has recently issued "Guidelines for the Examination of Digital Data during On-site Inspections (the "Guidelines"). This comes in response to a recently enacted law (no. 7246, dated 16 June 2020), which has introduced significant amendments to paragraph a) of Article 15 ("On-site Inspections") of Law No.4054 on the Protection of Competition ("Law No. 4054"). Within the framework of these changes, the TCA is now allowed to examine all manner of data and documents stored on electronic devices and information systems during on-site inspections and/or to copy such data and bring it to the TCA's premises for preservation and examination. The Guidelines set out the procedures that will apply for the assessment of digital data in compliance with Article 15 of Law No. 4054.