Turkey: Cartels, Monopolies

The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) recently published its reasoned decision concerning a wide-ranging investigation into undertakings active in the production and sale of ready-mixed concrete in Aydın. The investigation concerned allegations of price fixing, customer and territorial allocation and resale price maintenance under Article 4 of Law No. 4054, which is broadly similar to Article 101 TFEU.

Competition enforcement has never been purely domestic, but the degree to which authorities today actively engage with their foreign counterparts, share investigative methodologies, and benchmark their findings against international practice has reached a level that would have seemed remarkable not long ago. Competition law and policy have, in parallel with globalisation, acquired an increasingly international character; cross-border cooperation between competition authorities is no longer confined to high-profile merger reviews or global cartel prosecutions, but permeates sector inquiries, investigations, and even the verification of individual arguments raised by investigated parties.

The Turkish Competition Authority intensified its focus on market structure and procedural enforcement in July 2026, conditionally approving major retail and food-sector transactions while imposing strict commitments on A101 and Cargill Türkiye. Simultaneously, the authority maintained its rigorous stance on procedural compliance, penalizing multiple companies for obstructing inspections and withholding information, while concluding investigations through settlements and commitment procedures.

The Turkish Competition Authority maintained an exceptionally active enforcement agenda throughout May 2026, launching investigations into Meta's WhatsApp AI integration and imposing interim measures requiring Unilever to allocate freezer space to competitors. Significant developments included structural remedies mandating separation of casting agencies from production activities, settlements in labour market information exchange cases, and a landmark decision combining settlement and commitment mechanisms

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced criminal antitrust charges against four of the world’s largest shipping container manufacturers and seven executives over an alleged global cartel affecting the market for standard dry shipping containers.

On 12 June 2026, the Turkish Ministry of Justice announced that a criminal investigation had been launched against companies and executives active in the Turkish poultry (white meat) sector, on the grounds that their conduct distorted the functioning of the market, caused unjustified price increases, and harmed consumers.

The Regulation on Administrative Fines for Restrictive Agreements, Concerted Practices, Decisions, and Abuse of Dominance, which governs the administrative fines issued by the Turkish Competition Board (the "Board") for competition law violations, has been renewed and published in the Official Gazette on 27 December 2024 and numbered 32765.

In September 2025, the UK Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") published a practical guide entitled Competing for Talent, focusing on how competition law applies in labour markets.

The Communiqué No. 2025/3 ("New Communiqué"), which introduces significant amendments to the Communiqué on the Regulation of the Right to Access the File and the Protection of Trade Secrets (No. 2010/3) ("Communiqué")...