NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

101 COMPETITION LAW Restriction of Online Advertisement and Sales: European Commission’s Guess Decision* Att. Can Yildiz Introduction Restrictions imposed by suppliers on their resellers have become a hot topic of competition law practice in recent years, particularly in Europe. The European Court of Justice’s (“ECJ”) Coty ruling 1 , which confirmed that a supplier of luxury goods may prohibit authorized re- tailers from selling its products on third party platforms, such as Ama- zon and eBay, has recently brought attention to vertical constraints concerning online sales. Furthermore, pursuant to its Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe 2 plan, the European Commission (“Commission”) conducted an e-commerce sector inquiry, the final report of which was published in May, 2017 3 . Since then, the Commission has initiated a number of investiga- tions to scrutinize the e-commerce sector, such as the recent investiga- tions regarding online resale price maintenance by consumer electron- * Article of March 2019 1 ECJ preliminary ruling in Case C-230/16 Coty Germany GmbH v Parfümerie Akzente GmbH, 6 December 2017. 2 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions a Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. (COM/2015/0192 final) https:// eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2015%3A192%3AFIN (Access date: March 2019). 3 Final report on the E-commerce Sector Inquiry (Brussels, 10.5.2017 - COM(2017) 229 final) http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/sector_inquiry_final_report_ en.pdf