Newsletter-21

161 COMPETITION LAW Tüpraş Decision and the Rebate Systems* Att. Elif Mungan Introduction The Competition Board (“Board”) has evaluated whether Tür- kiye Petrol Rafinerileri A.Ş. (“Tüpraş”) abused its dominant position through its turnover premium rebate system in accordance with Art. 6 of Act No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“CompetitionAct”) in its decision 1 dated 16.03.2016 and numbered 16-10/159-70. Tüpraş and the Relevant Market Tüpraş, the greatest oil refinery in Turkey, is active in regard to the procuring, exporting, importing and stocking of unprocessed petroleum, the processing of unprocessed petroleum or semi-finished petroleum, producing every type of petroleum product, by-product or side-product, and stocking, blending, exporting and launching the products produced through the processing of the unprocessed petro- leum. Tüpraş has been privatized through the Board’s decision dated 21.10.2005 and numbered 05-71/981-270 2 . The Board determined the relevant product market as the “diesel oil whole sale market,” and identified the relevant geographic market as “Turkey.” Moreover, the Board stated that Tüpraş holds a domi- nant position in the relevant product market, and based its dominance evaluation upon its previous decisions 3 . * Article of September 2016 1 Please see. http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/File/?path=ROOT%2f1%2fDocuments%2 fGerek%C3%A7eli+Kurul+Karar%C4%B1%2f16-10-159-70.pdf (Access date: 06.09.2016). 2 Please see. http://www.rekabet.gov.tr/File/?path=ROOT%2f1%2fDocuments% 2fGerek%25c3%25a7eli%2bKurul%2bKarar%25c4%25b1%2fkarar1364.pdf (Access date: 06.09.2016). 3 Competition Board’s decision dated 21.10.2005 and numbered 05-71/981-270;