NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

182 NEWSLETTER 2020 Brief Overview of Sahibinden Decision The Competition Authority closely examined the activities of the referred undertaking in the Sahibinden Decision. Sahibinden.com pro- vides an online platform service that is used for the sale and advertise- ment of many products, especially real estate and vehicles. Within this scope, individual and corporate customers use this platform to place advertisements or search for them. While individual customers do not pay any fees for the referred platform services, corporate customers pay a membership fee. The Competition Authority examined whether excessive prices are applied in the online platform service market for real estate and vehicle sales/rental services, pursuant to Article 6 of Law No. 4054, in its Sahibinden Decision. Interestingly, in 2015, the Competition Authority examined the activities of Sahibinden.com with the same claims, and no violation was detected. It was stated by the Competition Authority in 2015 that if excessive prices were applied by Sahibinden.com, the rising prices would trigger new entries into the market due to the characteristics of the relevant market, and it would have a positive effect, since existing competitors may reach new customers in the market, and this would increase the competition. However, in the Sahibinden Decision of 2018, completely different conclusions were reached. In its 2018 Sahibinden Decision, the CompetitionAuthority deter- mined the relevant product markets as online platform service markets for real estate sales/rental services, and the online platform service market for vehicle sales services. The relevant geographic market was identified as Turkey. Following the market determinations, the Authority examined whether or not Sahibinden.com is in the dominant position in the rel- evant markets. The Authority determined that the undertaking holds an important market power due to reasons, such as the number of visitors, prices, and income from corporate members. In addition, considering criteria, such as entrance barriers (network effect) in the relevant mar- ket, and the fact that Sahibinden.com offers a wide range of different platform services, it was determined that the said undertaking is in the dominant position.