Turkish Competition Authority Responses To The COVID-19 Outbreak

As many competition authorities around the world make announcements on their approach to the global COVID-19 outbreak, we have been waiting to see how the Turkish Competition Authority (the "TCA") will respond to the crisis.

As anticipated, the TCA has made two recent announcements on COVID-19. On 23 March the TCA released a short general announcement regarding price gouging, with a focus on the fruits and vegetables market. On 25 March, the president of the TCA issued a press release in which he used strong words against undertakings involved in price gouging. The announcements in essence indicated that;

• The TCA has observed rapid increases in price in certain markets, in particular in fruits and vegetables.