NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

168 NEWSLETTER 2020 information request was not delivered to it through its subsidiaries, or was unaware of it. Moreover, the Board assessed that in line with the sole undertak- ing approach, due to the fact that the undertaking stated that it does not possess or have access to the information, alone, will not prevent the imposing of sanctions. Additionally, by referring to the practices of the European Commission and the practices in the United States, the Board explicitly pointed out that the argument stating that the requested data cannot be submitted due to the violation of another country’s rules will not be accepted as just cause. The Claim that the Requested Information and Documents Can Not Be Provided Due to the GDPR Rules The Board was not concerned about the undertakings that ex- hibited efforts to provide information and documents in compliance with the GDPR or relevant national regulations (i.e. black outing/ anonymizing to hide personal data was found reasonable) without obstructing the current investigation, and it considered this issue to be within the scope of Article 16(c) of Law No. 4054. However, it also clearly expressed that the same approach will not be applicable for undertakings who declare that they will never provide the requested information and documents by solely relying on the GDPR and rel- evant legislation. The Claim that the Scope of the Request is Beyond the Authority of the Board It was claimed that the content of the requested correspondence partially concerned transactions that were not concluded in TRY and, thus, had no effect on the Turkish market. Thereby, it was claimed that the content of the related correspondence is beyond the Author- ity’s authority to request the information. On the other hand, the Board stressed that the relevant undertakings were informed that the infor- mation request essentially covers transactions carried out in TRY in line with the effects principle and, if the data can be separated and provided to the Board without obstructing the current investigation, it is comprised only of the transactions in TRY.