NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

Evaluation of COVID 19 Outbreak in Terms of Turkish Competition Law* Att. Mert Karamustafaoğlu “Everything was so much that it would come as little to be surprised.” Edip Cansever Introduction COVID 19 was previously a mysterious disease that appeared in a remote Chinese city. Over time, frightening images of this epidemic disease began to appear in the news. At first, many countries in the world were safe; the disease was not everywhere. In time, however, COVID 19 spread throughout the world, as it was inevitable to do so. Epidemics seen in various periods throughout world history af- fected thousands, even millions of people. For example, in the book, “Rebellion and Plague in Istanbul,” by Eastern Roman historian, Pro- kopios, a disastrous plague epidemic is described. Due to the aforesaid epidemic, the economic and social life in the Roman Empire changed drastically, and strict new laws were introduced. Despite this, however, the fall of the Roman Empire could not be prevented. Hence, after the raging of great epidemics, empires collapsed, or new empires began to emerge throughout history. The COVID 19 outbreak, like all other major outbreaks, has be- come a problem threatening all humanity throughout time; therefore, it was declared as a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization on 12 March. It caused millions of people to fall sick and to date, we have seen over 400,000 related deaths. The shelves of supermarkets were emptied within a few hours by people panicking in fear. Cleaning and food products supply became a serious problem. Billions of people remained in quarantine in their homes for months. Economies have * Article of May, 2020