Turkish Competition Law In July 2026: From Dawn Raids And Investigations To Merger Control

Antitrust Enforcement

TCA launched investigation into undertakings operating in the nuclear medicine market over bid rigging and concerted practice allegations: The TCA has initiated a formal investigation into 11 undertakings operating in the nuclear medicine market (including Medicheck, Referans, Fefa, Sintias, Nukleon, Bianco, Nukleus, MNT, GAMA and Moltek) to determine whether they violated Article 4 of the Competition Act through bid rigging and/or concerted practices, particularly in tenders conducted by public hospitals. The investigation focuses on the PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography) and FDG (18F fluorodeoxyglucose) tender market, an industry with critical importance for cancer diagnosis and follow-up and will examine the bidding behaviour of the parties and its likely impact on competition.

TCA imposed interim measure on Haribo in soft candy market investigation: The TCA has imposed an interim measure on Haribo following an investigation opened against the undertaking on 5.03.2026 to determine whether it violated Articles 4 and/or 6 of the Competition Act. Under the measure, Haribo is required to allocate 30% of the volume of all its stands in traditional sales points of 200 square metres or less to competing brands that do not have their own stands at the relevant sales point. The allocated space must be placed on the visible side of Haribo stands, arranged vertically in a single block, and labelled with the phrase "This space is allocated to competing products".

Haribo must certify compliance with the measure before the TCA within one month of notification of the reasoned decision, failing which administrative fines will be imposed. The investigation into Haribo remains ongoing.

TCA fined Allianz Sigorta for obstruction of an on-site inspection by deleting data: During an on-site inspection conducted at Allianz Sigorta, as part of a preliminary examination opened by the TCA into undertakings active in the health insurance market for alleged violations of Articles 4 and 6 of the Competition Act, two separate deletion findings were identified. First, an email was found in the deleted items folder of an employee's email account. Following a request by the TCA, Allianz submitted system log records from its Microsoft Exchange server demonstrating that the deletion was not caused by any action of the employee but was the automatic result of a recall function initiated by the original sender. The TCA accepted this explanation and did not treat this finding as obstruction.

Second, and critically, a company employee was found to have deleted a WhatsApp message sent to a WhatsApp work group after the inspection had commenced and despite a prior warning by TCA case handlers not to delete any data. Although Allianz argued the deletion was accidental and cooperated extensively in attempting to recover the message, the content could not be retrieved. The TCA, consistent with its established precedent that the deletion of data after an inspection begins is sufficient to constitute obstruction or impediment regardless of whether the deleted data is recovered or is of substantive relevance, found that the deletion obstructed and/or impeded the inspection and unanimously imposed an administrative fine at the rate of five per thousand of Allianz's 2024 gross domestic direct premium production.

TCA fined Temu (Whaleco Technology Limited and Whaleco Turkey Teknoloji AŞ) for obstruction of an on-site inspection: As part of a preliminary examination to determine whether Temu violated Article 4 of the Competition Act by intervening in the resale prices of sellers active on its platform, TCA case handlers arrived at Temu's registered address to conduct an on-site inspection. However, the inspection could not be carried out as the case handlers were unable to enter the office, as no Temu employee was present at the premises throughout the entire inspection process, and no organizational chart was provided. The Board decided that Temu had obstructed and impeded the inspection and resolved to impose a fine at the rate of five per thousand of Temu's annual gross revenues, with the exact amount to be determined upon receipt of Temu's revenue information. As Temu's 2025 financial statements had not yet been finalized, the fine was calculated on the basis of Temu's 2024 gross revenues and was imposed unanimously by the Board.

TCA grants individual exemption to Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways for Joint Business Agreement on Istanbul-Bangkok route: Following a notification by Turkish Airlines (THY), the TCA assessed the Joint Business Agreement concluded between THY and Thai Airways on 2 June 2025 for the Istanbul-Bangkok route, under which revenues generated by both airlines on the route are pooled and shared in proportion to seat capacity offered. The TCA found that the agreement raises competition concerns under Article 4 due to provisions on price and revenue coordination, capacity and schedule coordination, and frequent flyer programme integration, but granted an individual exemption for three years under Article 5, extendable by a further two years upon mutual agreement. All four exemption conditions were satisfied:

(i) The agreement is expected to generate efficiencies through better capacity utilisation and schedule optimisation;

(ii) Consumers are expected to benefit through more frequent departures, shorter connecting times, broader network access, and more favourable pricing;

(iii) Competition on the route is not eliminated given the presence of multiple competing carriers; and

(iv) The restrictions go no further than necessary to achieve the stated efficiencies.

Merger Control

TCA conditionally cleared Cargill's acquisition of PNS subject to behavioural commitments addressing concerns in the glucose syrup market: The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) approved the acquisition by Cargill Tarım ve Gıda Sanayi Ticaret AŞ (Cargill Türkiye) of sole control over PNS Pendik Nişasta from Alpinvest, finding the transaction subject to commitments by assessing it could significantly restrict effective competition in the glucose syrup and mixtures sub-market.

The TCA found the behavioural commitments offered by Cargill Türkiye sufficient, appropriate, and proportionate to address the identified concerns, which fell into three categories:

(i) On pricing: Price increases for quota-subject products sold domestically will be capped by reference to specified cost components, monitored over five years through independent certified public accountant reports, subject to notification obligations in extraordinary economic conditions, and reversible by the TCA; (ii) On supply restriction risk: Existing contracts may only be terminated on objective grounds, spot sales must follow objective commercial criteria, and supply interruptions in extraordinary conditions must be notified to the TCA and are similarly reversible; and

(iii) On cross-subsidization risk: Revenues derived from glucose syrup and mixtures may not be used to finance other product groups.

The TCA emphasized that the commitments are binding and that daily administrative fines will apply in the event of non-compliance.

TCA unconditionally cleared the formation of a full-function joint venture between Airbus SAS and Société Air France for the provision of component maintenance services for Airbus A350 aircraft worldwide: The TCA cleared the establishment of a full-function joint venture between Airbus SAS and Société Air France, to be held 50/50 by each party upon completion, which will provide component maintenance services worldwide for the Airbus A350 aircraft family. The TCA found no competitive concern arising from the transaction in Türkiye. In the broader component maintenance and large commercial aircraft component maintenance markets, Airbus's market share was low. In the A350 component maintenance market, although Airbus held a market share above a certain threshold, all relevant activities would be fully transferred to the joint venture post-closing, meaning Airbus would cease offering those services and the market structure would remain unchanged. On vertical overlaps, no input foreclosure or customer foreclosure risk was identified at either the global or Turkish level, given the availability of numerous alternative suppliers, Air France-KLM's limited share of the joint venture's sales, and the fact that Air France-KLM rarely procures component maintenance services in Türkiye. The TCA also found no risk of coordination in Türkiye, given the parties' low market shares and the presence of strong competitors.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.