With two different announcements published on its website on 09.08.2023, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) announced that the investigations carried out against white goods companies were finalized and that it was decided to impose fines on the undertakings party to the investigation on the grounds that they determined the prices of their resellers and intervened in resale prices.
As stated in the announcements;
With the decision of the Competition Board ("Board") dated 03.08.2023 and numbered 23-36/692-235, it was decided that Arçelik Pazarlama A.Ş. ("Arçelik") violated Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition ("Law No. 4054") by determining the resale prices of its resellers and Arçelik was imposed an administrative fine of 365,379,161.06 TRY.
With the Board's decision dated 03.08.2023 and numbered 23-36/671-227, Samsung Electronics İstanbul Pazarlama ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti. ("Samsung"), LG Electronics Ticaret A.Ş. ("LG") and SVS Dayanıklı Tük. Mall. Paz. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti. ("SVS") violated Article 4 of Law No. 4054 by interfering in the resale price of their resellers and
- 227,161,142.04 TRY to Samsung
- 33,870,305.21 TRY to LG
- 1.984.907,00 TRY to SVS
administrative fines were imposed.
In the relevant announcements, it is seen that no penalties were imposed for behaviors aimed at preventing resellers' sales on e-marketplaces, which were frequently raised in the investigation processes and recently discussed in other decisions.
With these decisions, new violations have been added to the list of violations regarding resale price determination or intervention in the resale price, which have been frequently investigated and sanctioned by the Board in recent years.