Block Exemption Communiqué on Specialization Agreements is Revised

The Block Exemption Communiqué on Specialization Agreements (Communiqué No. 2025/2) was published in the Official Gazette dated 26.06.2025 and numbered 32938. With the introduction of Communiqué No. 2025/2, the Block Exemption Communiqué on Specialization Agreements numbered 2013/3 and dated 26.07.2013 and (Communiqué No. 2013/3) has ceased to be in force. 

Communiqué No. 2025/2 re-establishes the principles required for specialization agreements between undertakings relating to production or distribution to benefit from a block exemption from the prohibition stipulated in Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Law No. 4054) under block exemption. 

The Communiqué summarizes the main provisions as follows:

Market Shares

• With Communiqué No. 2025/2 the previous total market share threshold for benefiting from block exemption has been lowered to 20% from 25%.
• In this regard, for specialization agreements to benefit from the block exemption, the total market share of the parties must not exceed 20% in any of the relevant markets to which the specialized products belong. 
• Where the products subject to specialization are used by the parties as essential inputs in the production of other products sold in a different market, the 20% market share threshold must be satisfied separately in both the relevant market for the specialized products and the downstream market in which these products are used.
• The calculation of market share is based on data from the preceding calendar year. Where the data for the previous calendar year do not accurately reflect the parties’ positions in the relevant markets, the market share calculation shall be based on the average data for the preceding three calendar years.

Validity of the Exemption

• For agreements initially not exceeding a 20% market share threshold, the exemption will continue to apply for two years from the date on which the market share threshold is exceeded.

Upon the entry into force of Communiqué No. 2025/2, a two-year transition period is granted for specialization agreements that currently benefit from the block exemption under Communiqué No.213/3, but do not meet the conditions set forth in Communiqué No. 2025/2. During this period, these agreements must be brought into compliance with the new provisions, and the prohibition under Article 4 of Law No. 4054 shall not be applied.