Seven Decisions In Eighteen Days: The Competition Board's Busy Agenda

The past eighteen days have been an exceptionally busy period for competition law. Between 5 and 23 June 2026, the Turkish Competition Board (the "Board") handed down seven significant decisions. These comprise the conclusion of four investigations, the opening of a fresh investigation coupled with interim measures, the clearance of a major acquisition, and the authorisation of an application's return to the market following compliance with commitments. The decisions span a broad spectrum, ranging from traditional industrial markets to the digital economy, and from fast-moving consumer goods to artificial intelligence.

Below, we consider each of the seven decisions in turn, setting out the sector concerned, the infringement or competition concern at issue, the fine imposed where applicable, and the obligations introduced in order to safeguard competition.

1. A TRY 3.63 Billion Fine for the Automotive Tyre Manufacturing and Distribution Sector¹

The most striking decision of this period emerged in the automotive tyre manufacturing and distribution sector. Following an investigation that had been ongoing since 2024, the Board found that:

• the sector's leading manufacturers had engaged in concerted practices in respect of price movements;
• they had imposed resale price maintenance on their dealers and subjected them to territorial and customer restrictions; and
• in addition, the undertakings had entered into no-poach agreements in respect of one another's employees and had exchanged competitively sensitive information relating to labour markets. Labour-market infringements are an area on which the Board has increasingly trained its focus of late.

The Board held all of this conduct to infringe Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (the "Law"). Taking the settling undertakings together with those fined at the close of the investigation, administrative fines totalling TRY 3,633,935,171.32 were imposed.

In addition to the fines, and with a view to restoring competition in the relevant market, the Board imposed the following obligations on the manufacturer/supplier undertakings that were parties to the investigation and active in the tyre replacement market. These obligations are not binding on other undertakings operating in the market:

• applying, to every price list and price-related announcement sent to dealers (such as price increases, discounts and bonuses), a visible watermark uniquely identifying each dealer, so that the source can be traced if information is leaked to competitors;
• ceasing the practice of issuing bulk price announcements and instead communicating on a one-to-one basis through a portal that each dealer can access only with its own username and password, and establishing such a portal where none exists; and
• inserting into dealer agreements penalty clauses sufficient to deter dealers from sharing forward-looking pricing information with competitors, together with provisions permitting termination for just cause.

Compliance with these obligations must be evidenced to the Turkish Competition Authority (the "Authority") within three months of notification of the reasoned decision.

2. Investigation into Subscription Video-on-Demand Platforms Closed by Way of Commitments²

The second decision concerns the Board's investigation into subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms. The investigation into Netflix, BluTV, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Exxen and Gain was concluded by way of the commitment procedure. Rather than finding an infringement and imposing a fine, the Board brought the investigation to a close by rendering binding the commitments offered by the platforms.

The investigation centred on two issues: first, whether Netflix had discriminated in its selection of Turkish producers and whether its contracts contained unfair terms; and secondly, the exclusivity provisions contained in all of the platforms' content and talent (actors, directors and screenwriters) agreements. In order to address the Board's competition concerns, the undertakings under investigation offered the following commitments, which the Board accepted:

• Netflix will, over a five-year period, commission a certain proportion of its branded Turkish content to production companies with which it has not previously worked. It will also hold at least one "Pitch Day" each year for three years, affording new producers, directors and screenwriters the opportunity to pitch projects directly;
• selection criteria will be published in a manner accessible to all, and applications will be answered, with reasons, within 120 days at the latest;
• exclusivity periods for content will be shortened and, in return, producers will be offered arrangements such as revenue sharing;
• no exclusivity agreements will be concluded with talent such as actors, directors and screenwriters, and care will be taken not to concentrate the roles of casting director, producer and agent in the same hands; and
• Disney+, BluTV, Amazon, Exxen and Gain will likewise cap exclusivity periods and bring talent exclusivity to an end.

3. A TRY 42.2 Million Fine for the Casting Agency and Talent Management Sector³

The Board found that the Casting Agencies Association, together with numerous agencies and managers, had jointly fixed agency commission rates and service terms and had exchanged competitively sensitive information among themselves.

As a result, fines totalling TRY 42,163,586.70 were imposed on 37 undertakings.

In addition to the fines, and with a view to restoring competition in the relevant market, the Board imposed the following obligations:

• casting direction and agency/management activities may no longer be carried on within the same economic unit; undertakings carrying on both must both remove one of those activities from their articles of association and discontinue it in practice;
• production and casting agency/management activities may not be carried on within the same economic unit; and agencies and managers may not undertake any other work on a producer's behalf (such as consultancy, accounting or public relations) in productions for which they supply talent;
• the casting of one talent may not be made conditional upon the casting of other talent, in other words, "bundling" is to be prevented; and
• the Casting Agencies Association must restructure its membership so that only agencies and managers may become members, inform its members of these rules, and publish an explanatory notice on its website.

These obligations will become binding on the undertakings that were parties to the investigation upon notification of the decision, and, for other undertakings in the market, within three (3) months following publication of the reasoned decision on the Authority's website.

4. Investigation Opened into Meta⁴

The Board has opened an investigation into Meta (Meta Platforms, Meta Platforms Ireland, WhatsApp LLC and Meta Platforms İstanbul) under Article 6 of the Law, which governs the abuse of a dominant position. While no infringement has yet been established, the Board has decided to impose interim measures.

The investigation will examine whether, in integrating its own AI assistant, Meta AI, into WhatsApp, Meta has foreclosed third-party AI providers from offering services over WhatsApp. In the preliminary investigation completed beforehand, the prevention of third-party AI assistants from being offered as a primary service over WhatsApp was, it was stated, assessed as amounting to "serious indications" of an infringement.

Under the interim measures adopted by the Board to forestall harm that would be difficult to remedy, and which will remain in force until a final decision is reached, Meta is required to put in place conditions that do not render it practically and economically difficult for third-party AI assistants to provide their AI services as a primary service over WhatsApp. Should these obligations not be fulfilled within one (1) month of notification of the reasoned interim-measures decision, the company will be subject to an administrative fine.

5. Investigation Concerning Coca-Cola's Coolers Concluded⁵

The investigation into Coca-Cola Satış ve Dağıtım A.Ş. ("CCSD"), conducted under both Article 4 and Article 6 of the Law, examined concerns that the company was foreclosing competitors through exclusivity and discount practices. The investigation was concluded without the imposition of an administrative fine, following acceptance of a comprehensive package of commitments offered by CCSD. The commitments given by CCSD are as follows:

• 35% of CCSD's coolers will be opened to competitors' products; this space will be partitioned within the cooler by means of a separator and labelled accordingly; at points of sale with more than one cooler, the ratio will be calculated separately for each cooler; and compliance will be monitored by means of measurement reports prepared by an independent third party;
• no labels or coverings liable to restrict the visibility of competitors' products will be placed on the cooler glass, and competitors will be free to use their own price tags. The orders of points of sale that fail to comply may be reduced incrementally, by 10% for each breach;
• the "efficiency" requirement based on a minimum annual case-purchase volume, together with the shortfall ("top-up") invoices issued to dealers where that requirement is not met, will be discontinued;
• bonuses for area sales managers will be abolished; for field sales staff, base salary will be raised to 80% and variable remuneration capped at 20%; and the CCINext application, which enables points of sale to place orders independently, will be made more visible; and
• awning, signage and shelving support will no longer be tied to product purchases; discounts will be set independently and on objective criteria for each product category; and free-product support will be removed in the water and soda categories.

The commitments will be reviewed by the Board after three years.

6. Uber's Acquisition of Getir Cleared Subject to a USD 500 Million Commitment⁶

The Board has cleared the acquisition by Uber Technologies of sole control over the online food ordering and delivery business line, and the online fast-moving consumer goods (quick-commerce) ordering and delivery business line, of Getir Perakende Lojistik A.Ş. The clearance was granted without any finding of infringement or any fine within the framework of a package of commitments offered by Uber.

Under the commitment given, Uber will invest a total of USD 500 million in Türkiye. The Board expects this investment to support high-quality employment, strengthen local engineering capabilities, and contribute to the development of Türkiye's digital and technological infrastructure.

7. Threads Permitted to Return to the Market⁷

In an investigation conducted in 2024, the Board had characterised Meta's requirement that users hold an Instagram account in order to use Threads, and the combining of data between the two applications, as an abuse of a dominant position under the Law; it had brought the use of the application to an end and had imposed an administrative fine for breach of the interim measures. In the ensuing process, the commitments offered by Meta were accepted by the Board. The Board has now assessed the petition submitted by Meta seeking to make Threads available once again in Türkiye, and has decided that Meta has complied with its commitments.

As a result of the commitments, when Threads is made available again, users will be offered two options: (i) using Threads with their Instagram account; or (ii) creating a separate Threads profile using a mobile telephone number, independently of Instagram.

For those users who elect to use Threads independently, the personal data obtained from Instagram will not be combined with Threads. This will apply both to first-time registrants and to existing users who did not delete their accounts during the suspension period.

Commentary

Reviewing the Board's seven recent decisions, we would highlight the following salient points and emerging trends:

• Labour markets are now treated by the Board as a standalone economic market for competition-law purposes, and labour-market infringements in particular the exchange of wage information and no-poach agreements are assessed as infringements of the Law in their own right;
• In the digital and AI sphere, the recourse to interim measures at the very first step of the Meta investigation demonstrates the Board's swift and interventionist stance towards large technology companies; and
• The commitment mechanism is assuming an increasingly central role in the Board's decisions. In each of the SVOD platforms, CCSD and Uber files, the Board chose to restore competition through detailed and verifiable commitments rather than fines. The concreteness of the obligations imposed not only facilitates their implementation but also renders them easier for the Board to monitor. The design and supervision of a compliance mechanism for commitments is the second important dimension of this trend; the Threads decision, too, illustrates the significance the Board attaches to commitments.

Footnotes

1. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 16 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/otomotiv-sektorunde-lastik-uretimi-ve-da-cb96d5f95e69f11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

2. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 12 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/netflix-blutv-disney-amazon-prime-exxen--2d3bc59e5c66f11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

3. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 9 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/kast-ajanslari-dernegi-ile-kast-ajansi-m-296e71ef0164f11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

4. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 5 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/meta-hakkinda-sorusturma-acilmasina-ve-g-3c21d4cfcb60f11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

5. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 18 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/coca-cola-satis-ve-dagitim-as-ccsd-hakki-46ec6b91006bf11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

6. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 19 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/uber-technologies-inc-tarafindan-getir-a-b7a6d2dc226bf11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

7. Announcement of the Competition Board dated 23 June 2026 (https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/meta-platforms-inc-meta-tarafindan-threa-5a3f8e41d16ef11193eb0050568549fa, accessed 23 June 2026).

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