The three vacancies of the Turkish Competition Board ("Board"), the competent decision-making organ of the Turkish Competition Authority, which have been vacant for almost three months, have now been filled.
Pursuant to the Decree of the Council of Ministers numbered 2015/7867 published on the Official Gazette dated June 24, 2015, and numbered 29396, the Council of Ministers resolved that the following persons have been appointed to the Board: (i) Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak, who was nominated by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, and appointed to act as the Chairman of the Board, (ii) Arslan Narin, who was nominated by the Ministry of Customs and Trade, and appointed to act as the Deputy Chairman of the Board, (iii) Kenan Türk, who was nominated by the Supreme Court of Appeals, and appointed to act as a member of the Board.
This appointment was long awaited since the entire Board was unable to adopt any decisions on any matter since early April 2015, when the Board had lost the necessary meeting quorum due to three members leaving their positions, for the first time in its 18-year history. Hence, final decisions concerning certain matters, including merger control decisions, pre-investigations and investigations, were pending due to the Board's lack of quorum.
During this period a number of cases have obtained tacit approval pursuant to Article 10(2) of Law No. 4054 on the Protection on the Competition which provides that "If Board does not respond to or take any action for the application as to a merger or acquisition within due time, merger or acquisition agreements shall take effect and become legally valid after 30 days as of the date of the notification".
Although the inauguration date of the newly appointed members of the Board is not explicitly spelled out in the relevant legislation, as a general rule, the Chairman and members of the Board may not assume office prior to taking an oath before the Supreme Court of Appeals. In this respect, the application for the oath is deemed as an urgent matter by the Supreme Court of Appeals.
While the Board may have some back-log, once the newly appointed members resume their duties, the Board will carry on with the pending matters in its agenda, including merger control matters and pre-investigations as well as investigation files. Therefore, the Board now has a busy agenda and is expected to start initiating pre-investigations which were delayed due the lack of quorum.
With the appointment by the Council of Ministers, the Board is now composed of Ömer Torlak (Chairman), Arslan Narin (Deputy Chairman), Kenan Türk (Member), Reşit Gürpınar (Member), Fevzi Özkan (Member), Tahir Saraç (Member), Metin Arslan (Member). Brief background information on the newly appointed members is provided below:
Ömer Torlak was appointed to Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences in 2002 as associate professor, and in 2007 he has received professor degree. He was working as Dean at the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences in 2011 and 2012. He was appointed to Karatay University as Chancellor in 2012. Mr. Torlak has several books, book editing and contributions along with articles. He was also a speaker in many congresses and symposia.
Kenan Türk, a graduate of Ankara University Law School and served as a judge between the years 2000 and 2002. He was appointed as judge to the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2010, and later as member of the Board in November 2012, to serve until March 2015.
Arslan Narin was appointed to the First Legal Consultancy Department of the Supreme Council of Radio and Television as a legal counsel in January 2009 and as a vice president of the Supreme Council of Radio and Television in 2011. He was appointed to the Ministry of Finance as a legal affairs manager and a proceeding general manager. Mr. Narin graduated from Ankara University Law School in 1993.
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.
