Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition ("Competition Law") prohibits anti-competitive agreements, concerted practices and decisions. However, some restrictive agreements may have significant benefits for consumers. Therefore, the Competition Law has established an exemption system based on this fact. Exemption may be granted by the Board as a block exemption or as an individual exemption.
The applicable block exemption rules are as follows:
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2002/2 on Vertical Agreements: It establishes the conditions for vertical agreements to become exempt from the implementation of Article 4 of the Competition Law.
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2017/3 on Vertical Agreements in the Motor Vehicles Sector: It establishes the conditions for granting block exemptions from the application of the Article 4 prohibition to vertical agreements in the motor vehicle sector.
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2016/5 on R&D Agreements: It establishes conditions for R&D agreements to benefit from the block exemption regime.
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2008/3 for the Insurance Sector: It establishes the conditions for certain agreement categories within the insurance sector to benefit from the block exemption regime.
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2008/2 on Technology Transfer Agreements: It establishes the conditions for technology transfer agreements to benefit from the block exemption regime.
- Block Exemption Communiqué No. 2013/3 on Specialization Agreements: It establishes the conditions for granting block exemptions from the application of the provisions of Article 4 of the Competition Law to specialization agreements between undertakings.
The issue of whether a restrictive agreement benefits from a block exemption requires a case-by-case analysis. The above mentioned exemptions are mostly modelled on their respective equivalents in the EU. Restrictive agreements that do not benefit from either a block exemption under the relevant communiqué, or an individual exemption issued by the Board, would fall under the prohibition in Article 4.
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