Turkish Competition Law Quarterly Bulletin: Q1 2026 — Regulatory Reform, Expanded Enforcement, And Constitutional Milestones

The first quarter of 2026 delivered a notably active period for Turkish competition law enforcement. The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) advanced enforcement across anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominance, and labour market practices, whilst simultaneously introducing significant regulatory and legislative changes. Landmark Constitutional Court rulings, a comprehensive overhaul of the merger control regime, and an escalating focus on digital platforms and the labour market collectively defined the quarter.

This bulletin surveys the principal developments of Quarter 1 of 2026, examining regulatory reforms, notable enforcement decisions, and emerging priorities that will shape the Turkish competition landscape in the months ahead.

Regulatory & Policy Developments

Significant Amendments to the Merger Control Regime

Significant legislative amendments to the TCA's merger control regime entered into force in February. The amendments introduced substantially increased turnover thresholds: the threshold for the target’s turnover from Turkey was raised from TRY 250 million to TRY 1 billion (approximately EUR 22.4 million), the total parties’ Turkish turnover threshold from TRY 750 million to TRY 3 billion (approximately EUR 67 million), and the worldwide turnover threshold from TRY 3 billion to TRY 9 billion (approximately EUR 201.3 million). The technology undertaking exception was narrowed to cover only technology undertakings "located in Türkiye," with a newly introduced turnover threshold of TRY 250 million for transactions involving such undertakings.

The Notification Form has also been revised. Information requirements for low-market-share transactions have been substantially reduced. A facilitating provision has been introduced for venture capital investment companies, private equity firms, and angel investors, limiting information requirements to Türkiye-related data; where the worldwide turnover threshold is declared to be exceeded, such investors may provide turnover figures and information about their operations only for Türkiye. Questions relating to coordination risk in joint ventures now require detailed information on each relevant market, including turnover figures of each parent undertaking and market shares, ensuring that the assessment of coordination risks is data-driven and transparent.

Constitutional Court Rulings on Dawn Raid Powers and the Settlement Procedure

In an individual application judgment in 2023 (the Ford Otomotiv case), the Turkish Constitutional Court held that dawn raids conducted solely based on an internal TCA administrative decision violated Article 21 of the Turkish Constitution, which protects the inviolability of the domicile, extending the concept of "residence" to include workplaces, headquarters, and branches of legal entities. Following that ruling, administrative courts referred Article 15 of Competition Act for abstract constitutional review. The Constitutional Court ultimately upheld Article 15, finding that it serves a legitimate public interest and includes sufficient safeguards, thereby allowing the TCA to continue conducting dawn raids without obtaining prior judicial authorisation. Notably, the judgment attracted five dissenting opinions, suggesting that the procedural aspects of dawn raids remain a developing and contested area of law.

The Turkish Constitutional Court unanimously rejected a referral by the Ankara 9th Administrative Court seeking to annul a legal provision that prevents parties from challenging administrative fines and settlement terms before courts once an investigation process is concluded with a settlement decision. The Constitutional Court ruled that whilst this restriction limits the right of access to a court, it remains constitutional since settlement is a voluntary procedural option chosen by the parties with foreseeable legal consequences, and the rule serves a legitimate public interest by reducing judicial workload and minimising the costs associated with prolonged competition investigations.

Sector Inquiry Report on Handheld Terminals in the FMCG Industry

The TCA published a comprehensive sector inquiry report on handheld terminals used in the FMCG market. The Report concludes that handheld terminals may trigger competition law concerns regarding three specific issues specified below and recommendations to address and eliminate these concerns.:

• Resale price maintenance ("RPM"),
• territory and customer allocation,
• rebate systems.

The Report notes that regular photographing and uploading of shelf prices under the guise of market intelligence may be considered an element facilitating RPM (referencing the UK CMA's Roland decision), that suppliers may use handheld terminal systems to restrict customer and territory allocations for resellers, and that dominant suppliers may leverage handheld terminal data within rebate systems in a manner that creates anti-competitive effects.

To minimise competition law risks, the Report recommends that data be transferred to the centre in an aggregated and anonymised format, that access to sensitive data be restricted to authorised personnel, and that digital systems be supported by automatic warning mechanisms. Training field employees on competition law and designing software in accordance with legal sensitivities are emphasised as critically important.

Cement Sector Inquiry

Construction is always regarded as the locomotive of Turkish Economy and TCA holds a tight hand over the stakeholders in this sector, accordingly. The TCA initiated a comprehensive sector inquiry into the cement industry. The decision comes against the backdrop of Türkiye's position as the fifth largest cement producer globally and the industry's structural characteristics, including high concentration levels and product homogeneity. The inquiry aims to identify sector-specific competition concerns and analyse regional competition dynamics, with findings intended to inform future policy development.

2025 Mergers and Acquisitions Overview Report

The TCA reviewed 416 transactions in 2025, recording the highest transaction volume since 2013. In 162 transactions (excluding privatisations), the target company was based in Türkiye, with a total notified transaction value of TRY 466 billion (approximately USD 11.81 billion). The highest number of Türkiye-based M&A transactions was recorded in computer programming, consultancy, and related activities.

The Board issued merger control decisions on average 10 days after the final notification date; two cases entered Phase II, one cleared with commitments and one ongoing.

Notable Investigations

Investigations concerning anticompetitive agreements

Following numerous complaints regarding significant price increases in tuition fees, the TCA opened a formal investigation into 19 private schools to determine whether they have agreed on excessive pricing, whether the provision of certain ancillary services has been de facto tied to core education services, and whether schools have steered students and parents towards procuring such services through designated sales channels.

The TCA's enforcement against vertical restrictions, particularly RPM, continued with vigour during the quarter. The TCA launched an investigation about Carex, which operates in the production, sale, distribution, and importation of cosmetic and dermo-cosmetic products, concerning allegations of resale price maintenance and restriction of online sales. The TCA has conducted numerous investigations in the cosmetics and personal care sector in 2022, 2023, and 2024, examining restrictions on resellers' online and marketplace sales and imposing administrative fines on a number of undertakings. Similarly, the TCA opened an investigation about Dassault Systèmes to determine whether it violated the law through customer restriction and resale price maintenance.

Investigations in Labor Markets

The TCA's escalating scrutiny of labour market practices has been evident over recent years, and this quarter saw the addition of the banking, insurance, and information technology markets. The TCA initiated aı investigation into 26 undertakings across these three markets to determine whether they were party to no-poach agreements and/or exchanged competitively sensitive information in the labour market.

Labour market enforcement was not confined to the financial sector. The TCA opened a formal investigation into 65 undertakings and professional associations in the independent auditing and accounting advisory industries, including the Turkish affiliates of the globally operating Big Four firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG). The investigation aims to determine whether Article 4 has been violated through price-fixing and customer allocation in output markets, no-poach and wage-fixing agreements in labour markets, exchange of competitively sensitive information, and anticompetitive decisions by associations of undertakings.

Investigations Concerning Abuse of Dominance

The TCA's investigations initiated and sustained in the digital sector during the first quarter of 2026 are particularly noteworthy. Google continues to face sustained enforcement scrutiny from the TCA. An investigation opened in 2025 examines whether Google leverages its dominance in online advertising through its PMAX (Performance Max) advertising campaigns. Separately, an investigation initiated in 2026 concerns allegations that Google abuses its dominant position in the Android operating system ecosystem, impeding competitors in mobile applications and services markets. In addition, the TCA opened a new investigation into whether Google's billing practices in the provision of online advertising services violate the law, focusing on allegations that Google applies discriminatory invoicing through different legal entities to advertisers and advertising agency clients, whereby clients invoiced through Google Ireland are subject to withholding tax obligations under Turkish tax legislation whilst those invoiced through the Turkish entity are not, potentially creating disparate cost effects for undertakings within the same classification.

In another significant digital platform enforcement action, the TCA terminated its investigation into Sahibinden, an online classified advertising platform operating across categories including real estate and  automotive. The investigation had focused on whether Sahibinden unlawfully leveraged user data from its online vehicle sales platform to strengthen its position in the online second-hand vehicle market through its Otobid service. The TCA accepted the following key commitments: Removal of Otobid displays from Sahibinden's website and mobile application; prohibition on directing users to Otobid when posting vehicle listings; implementation of organisational and technical measures to prevent use of non-public platform data for Otobid services; and ensuring that Otobid revenues do not exceed variable costs and advertising expenditures beyond a certain threshold.

The TCA's scrutiny of digital platforms had also extended to algorithmic pricing practices. The TCA published its reasoned decision about the termination of its investigation into Amazon Turkey's automated pricing mechanism. The Board ultimately found that the mechanism did not constitute a competition-restricting arrangement, noting that the mechanism was not mandatory, that no agreement or concerted practice among sellers could be identified, that rule sets were largely customisable by each seller, and that the system had been discontinued in Türkiye.

The TCA also addressed competition concerns in the content management services market. The TCA closed its investigation about Merzigo and Yek Teknoloji, which provide content management services on digital video sharing platforms (most notably YouTube), accepting commitments including removal of exclusivity clauses from contracts with rights holders, a 40% cap on the number of contents the parties may manage, reduction of contract durations to a maximum of three years, and elimination of minimum guarantee payments and similar remuneration arrangements.

The TCA also pursued enforcement in the FMCG sector, which has consistently been among the Authority's priority areas. The TCA initiated an investigation into Haribo, concerning allegations that it prevented competition in the soft candy market by abusing its dominant position, excluded competitors through conduct leading to de facto exclusivity, and intervened in the resale prices of sales points.

Procedural Fine Decisions: Dawn Raid Obstruction

The TCA imposed an administrative fine on Spotify for obstructing an on-site inspection conducted within the scope of a preliminary investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices in the online music streaming market, after Spotify refused to provide access to employees based abroad who were identified as having active roles in its Turkish market operations. The Board found that maintaining a nominally active local entity whilst managing Turkish operations through foreign-based personnel does not shield a company from TCA scrutiny. Subsequently, following a prior decision finding continued obstruction, the TCA imposed a total daily administrative fine of TRY 27,6 million  (approximately EUR 620,000) on the economic entity.

Another dawn-raid obstruction decision is related with the deletion of WhatsApp messages. During an on-site inspection at the premises of Coca-Cola, a Coca Cola employee was found to have deleted WhatsApp correspondences after the inspection had commenced. The TCA determined that the deletion constituted an obstruction of the inspection, noting that it could not be established that the deleted data was limited solely to personal correspondences, and accordingly imposed an administrative fine at a rate of 0.5% of Coca Cola's 2024 gross revenues.

Merger Control Decisions

The TCA's merger control practice during the first quarter of 2026 yielded several noteworthy decisions, each addressing distinct aspects of the Authority's evolving analytical framework — from gun-jumping allegations and data access risks in vertical integrations to the first application of the recently published labour market guidelines in a merger context.

Dgpays/Provision is an example of gun-jumping assessment.  Following complaints alleging that Dgpays had begun implementing its acquisition of sole control over Provision prior to obtaining TCA clearance, the TCA investigated three categories of conduct, namely investor relations communications, business partnership activities, and employee-related communications, and found that none of these constituted an exercise of control or implementation of the transaction. The TCA concluded that no gun-jumping had occurred and rejected the complaint, noting that the parties had actively monitored the clearance process and extended the long-stop date pending TCA approval.

Turning to substantive competitive assessment, in Team.blue's acquisition of a stake in Ticimax, the TCA's principal concern was that Ticimax would gain access to Team.Blue/Çizgi's database containing data relating to rival e-commerce platform operators, creating an asymmetric informational advantage and facilitating targeted customer acquisition from competitors. To address these risks, the TCA required structural and technical commitments including legal and managerial separation, database segregation, restricted access, access logs, firewall measures, and a non-steering commitment regarding domain name services.

Finally, the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance/Fortuna decision represents the first merger and acquisition clearance assessed under the recently published TCA Guidelines on Labour Markets. Non-compete obligations imposed on key personnel holding executive positions were committed to apply for the duration of their managerial role within the joint venture, whilst post-employment restrictions were limited to 12 months. The TCA found these restrictions compliant with ancillary restraints principles as they were directly related, necessary, and proportionate to the transaction.

Conclusion

The first quarter of 2026 reflects several overarching themes that practitioners and businesses operating in Türkiye should carefully monitor: The significant increase in turnover thresholds, the narrowing of the technology undertaking exception, and the simplification of notification forms will materially affect transaction planning and deal timelines.

The Constitutional Court's upholding of the TCA's dawn raid powers, combined with the imposition of daily fines against Spotify and a fresh fine against Coca-Cola for data deletion, underlines the critical importance of dawn raid readiness programmes.

The simultaneous opening of investigations into the banking, insurance, IT, and professional services sectors signals that labour market enforcement is now a principal strategic priority for the TCA.

Investigations and commitment decisions involving Google, Sahibinden, Amazon, Haribo, and content management service providers demonstrate that the TCA continues to scrutinise digital markets closely, with particular attention to data leverage, algorithmic practices, and exclusivity. The sector inquiries into FMCG handheld terminals and the cement industry further underscore the TCA's proactive approach to identifying structural competition concerns across key sectors of the Turkish economy.

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.