Turkish Competition Authority Proposes Regulation On E-Commerce Platforms

1. Sector Inquiry Background on E-Commerce Platforms

For the past few years, the Turkish Competition Authority (the “TCA”) increased its focus on competition concerns emerging from trade digitalization. As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased online sales' volumes and reinforced the growth of e-commerce platforms, the Competition Board (the “Board”) initiated a sector inquiry on e-commerce platforms on 11 June 2020 to examine the possible competition problems related to e-commerce platforms and provide solutions to these problems. On 7 May 2021, the TCA published its preliminary sector inquiry report on e-commerce platforms (the “Preliminary Report”), revealing its preliminary findings and initial policy recommendations. Almost one year later, on 14 April 2022, the TCA published the sector inquiry final report on e-commerce platforms (the “Final Report”). The Final Report reiterates the findings on the Preliminary Report regarding competition concerns but slightly