NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

131 COMPETITION LAW precautions to ensure the security and adequacy of supply for the pub- lic’s food and cleaning products. The Turkish Competition Authority, like other competition au- thorities in the EU and the United States, did not make any announce- ment regarding any changes concerning the functioning of competition rules, applications, and meeting procedures. However, it gave very limited certain flexibility in terms of defense period. The Competition Authority announced that applications regarding the extension of the second and third written defense periods will be accepted; even so, any matter that could not be submitted to the Competition Authority together with the defenses shall be submitted within the investigation period (approximately 15 months) 8 . This has, in fact, allowed many defense arguments to be presented within an investigation period of almost 15 months. The Competition Authority has been much more sensitive about food prices. The Competition Authority issued two very closely dated announcements about excessive prices, especially in the food sector. The Competition Authority previously published announcements about fresh fruit and vegetable products, which were claimed to have had excessive price increases imposed upon them 9 . Following these announcements by the Competition Authority, investigations were launched in markets, such as supermarket chains, and fruit and veg- etable markets. The first announcement by the CompetitionAuthority, after the ef- fects of the COVID 19 outbreak began to appear, was on 23.03.2020 10 . In this announcement, the Competition Authority emphasized COVID 19, which is a global epidemic, and stated that excessive price in- creases had been observed in the food markets, especially in the fresh fruit and vegetable market. Emphasizing that this situation affects consumer welfare, the Competition Authority stated that actions that 8 https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/duyuru-91e4ba53dc80ea11811800505694b4c6 (Access date: 09.06.2020). 9 https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2018/ekonomi/tarlada-da-yok-depoda-da-yok-2768372/ (Access date: 09.06.2020). 10 https://www.rekabet.gov.tr/tr/Guncel/kamuoyuna-duyuru-3b18d865266dea1181 1700505694b4c6 (Access date: 09.06.2020).