NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

118 NEWSLETTER 2019 Turkish Competition Board’s Sahibinden.com Decision* Att. Elif Mungan Introduction In the Competition Board’s decision dated 01.10.2018 and numbered 18-36/584-285 (“Decision”) 1 , it was considered whether Sahibinden Bilgi Teknolojileri Paz. ve Tic. A.Ş. (“Sahibinden.com”) violated Article 6 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”) by means of excessive pricing in the market for online platform services, for renting/selling vehicles and real estate. The investigated undertaking, Sahibinden.com, is an online platform where one can submit their notices and advertisements for real estate, as well as for many other areas. Sahibinden.com is a paid service for those who sell through the platform. However, it does not charge fees for any sales made through Sahibinden.com. As a side note, in the preliminary investigation conducted in 2014 on Sahibinden.com, it had also been examined whether Sahibinden. com violated Article 6 of Law No. 4054 by way of determining ex- cessive corporate membership fees. In its decision, the Competition Board stated that even if high prices were implemented in this dy- namic sector, given that these high prices would enable the undertak- ing to get its investments’ worth back, encourage new entrants to the market, and make it possible for existing undertakings in the market to reach potential customers more easily, it would mitigate the negative consequences of network effects on the competition in the market. In the final analysis, the Competition Board concluded this would have a positive result in terms of competition, and decided not to launch * Article of January 2019 1 Competition Board’s Sahibinden.com decision, No. 18-36/584-285, 01.10.2018, https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/Karar?kararId=8a58df07-f31b-457e-b936-9fa3af- d5fdbf (Access date: 28.01.2019).