Turkish Competition Authority's Amendments on the Merger Control Regulation in Turkey

The Turkish Competition Authority ("Authority") has introduced the Communiqué No. 2017/2 Amending Communiqué 2010/4 on Mergers and Acquisitions Requiring the Approval of the Competition Board ("Communiqué No. 2010/4") ("Communiqué No. 2017/2"). The Communiqué No. 2017/2 has been published in the Official Gazette on 24 February 2017, and entered into force on the same day. The amendments introduced to Communiqué No. 2010/4 are as follows:

(I) Article 1 of the Communiqué No. 2017/2 abolished Article 7(2) of the Communiqué No. 2010/4, which stated that "The thresholds set out in the first clause of this article are re-determined by the Board biannually." With the abolishment of the relevant clause, the Turkish Competition Board ("Board") is no longer rested with the duty to re-establish turnover thresholds for concentrations every two years. Therefore, there is no specific timeline for the review of the relevant turnover thresholds set forth by Article 7(1)