After almost two and a half years of investigation, the Turkish Competition Board announced on 8 March 2013 the outcome of the high-profile investigation against 12 Turkish banks, including three state-owned banks, private Turkish banks, and numerous international banks operating in Turkey.
Finding that the defendants have infringed competition laws by a collusion to harmonize their trade terms for cash deposit interests, credits, and credit card fees, the Turkish Competition Board levied turnover-based monetary fines against all 12 of the investigated banks, at different rates and nominal values.
The total amount of the fine is an unprecedented TRY 1.1 billion (around USD 670 million; EUR 481 million). This record-breaking fine has now taken the lead as the highest fine in the Competition Authority's enforcement history. The fine actually overtook the previous highest fine by more than quadrupling it. The decision also marks the highest fine ever imposed on a single undertaking. Up to now, the highest fine on a single undertaking was TRY 92 million (USD 55 million; EUR 39 million), which was levied in 2011 against Turkcell, the leading Turkish GSM operator. Now, the decision breaks that record with Garanti Bankası, one of the biggest private Turkish banks, which received TRY 213 million (around USD 127 million; EUR 92 million), more than double of the previous highest fine on a single undertaking. The decision also sets a record in that it single-handedly surpasses the sum of all fines imposed in the history of the Turkish antitrust enforcement in total. Before the decision, 189 investigations resulted in fines of TRY 865 million in total. That means one single investigation very significantly (by almost 30%) surpassed the total fines in 189 investigations in aggregation.
The turnover-based rates vary between 1.5% and 0.3% of the defendants' 2011 turnovers.
The finding of the violation was unanimous for six of the banks; whereas the decision was taken by majority for the other six banks. It appears that the Competition Board refused to set the basic level of the fine between 2% and 4%, which is the base rate normally applicable to cartels, subject to aggravating and mitigating circumstances. By doing so, the Competition Board has acknowledged that the violation does not constitute a cartel.
It could be underlined that by quadrupling their track-record for highest ever fine in an investigation in Turkey, the Turkish Competition Authority has demonstrated that they will not be intimidated by the sheer level of monetary values. That said, it is very questionable as to whether this is an investigation truly calling for such a rigid approach. This is now a matter for the administrative courts to review and decide.
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