Turkish Competition Board clears acquisition of N11 by Getir
With its decision dated 17 December 2021, No. 21-62/880-430, the Turkish Competition Board ("Board") cleared the acquisition of a certain amount of shares in N11.com, a well-known e-marketplace platform in Türkiye, by Getir Perakende Lojistik A.S. ("Getir") from Dogus Planet Elektronik Ticaret ve Bilisim Hizmetleri A.S. ("Dogus"). The decision includes some noteworthy competitive assessments by the Board.
Competitive assessment and conclusion
N11 is a large, multicategory e-marketplace with significant popularity in Türkiye. Getir, on the other hand, has extensive expertise in on-demand delivery services for grocery items, intermediary courier services, transportation services, etc. For the competitive assessment, the Board evaluated first the overlapping services of the parties, along with the market structure and dynamics within Türkiye. Firstly, the Board found no overlaps between the parties' activities; secondly, the Board benefited from its former research, mostly the Preliminary Report of the Sector Inquiry Regarding the E-Marketplace Platforms ("Preliminary Report"). Regarding the Preliminary Report, the Board considered N11's major market share losses within the market and concluded that the proposed transaction would not result in a significant lessening of competition, and conclusively cleared the proposed transaction.
Later on, the Turkish Competition Authority ("Authority") also mentioned the transaction in its Final Report of the Sector Inquiry Regarding the E-Marketplace Platforms (you may find our detailed article regarding the report here). In this section, the Authority referenced Trendyol's major market share increase, N11 and GittiGidiyor's significant market decrease, and the high concentration level of the oligopolistic market (reaching 70.10% from 56.06% for CR2, to 93.86% from 91.39% for CR4). At the end of the section, the Authority provided its perspective that Getir's acquisition might contribute to N11's market share growth, increase competition and therefore maintain the competition in a more fair environment.
The increasing competitive importance of portability in the age of data
The Board's Nadirkitap decision dated 7 April 2022, No. 22-16/273-122 sheds a light on the Board's approach toward the restraints on data portability by dominant undertakings in digital markets.
The decision's background and a note on its significance
As background, the case is based on the allegation that Nadirkitap Bilisim ve Reklamcilik A.S. ("Nadirkitap"), an online second-hand bookselling platform, hindered its competitors' activities by way of preventing the transfer of data of online second-hand booksellers who intend to sell their books through other digital platforms.
In parallel with the ever-growing trend of digitalization, the Authority also geared up its scrutiny over the competitive concerns in digital markets. The Authority published its final report on sector inquiry regarding e-marketplace platforms in April 2022, and has been launching probes to determine and remedy any competitive problems with regard to the digital economy. Yet, this is the first decision of the Board in relation to data portability in digital markets.
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