NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

134 NEWSLETTER 2020 Amendments in the Law on the Protection of Competition* Att. Zeynep Ezgi Yanarates Law No. 7246 Amending the Law on the Protection of Competi- tion, which has been in the draft phase for a long time (“Law No. 7246”) entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette dated 24.06.2020 and numbered 31165. Law No. 7246 brought impor- tant amendments to Law on the Protection of Competition numbered (“Law No. 4054”). Law No. 7246 contains the most comprehensive amendments since the adoption of Law No. 4054, and deficiencies have been com- pleted with the amendments. Law No. 7246 amends 12 Articles of Law No. 4054 regarding the undertakings and organizational structure of the Competition Authority (“Authority”) and competition expertise. The changes concerning particularly the undertakings are sum- marized, below: Amendments were made to the exemption system Article 4 of Law No. 4054 prohibits agreements and concerted practices between undertakings and decisions and practices of asso- ciations of undertakings that limit competition. The prohibition is not absolute, and if the conditions listed in Article 5 of Law No. 4054 are satisfied, undertakings may be exempted from the application of the provisions of Article 4. Even though prior to the amendment, Article 5 of Law No. 4054 noted: “The Board, in case all the terms listed below exist, may decide to exempt agreements, concerted practices between undertakings, and decisions of associations of * Article of July, 2020