Elite Competition Law Practice in Turkey - GCR 100
For review of the Global Competition Review 100 - 21st Edition, please view the Global Competition Review website.
Unlike other firms in Turkey, competition is ELİG GÜRKAYNAK ATTORNEYS AT LAW’s key focus, says Gönenç Gürkaynak, head of the firm’s 45-member competition team. ELİG Gürkaynak indisputably houses the country’s largest and most well-known antitrust practice, mostly thanks to Gönenç Gürkaynak’s experience and expertise.
He filed the first merger notification under Turkey’s fledgling competition law in 1997 and has since helped build Turkey’s premier competition practice.
Gönenç Gürkaynak is proud of his firm’s investment in the next generation of antitrust lawyers and in gender balance. Gönenç Gürkaynak led the team defending Google in all four of the Turkish enforcer’s recent behavioural probes into the company.
In 2019, the agency began investigating whether Google favours its own services in local search and also launched a separate probe into Google’s alleged abuse of dominance in search advertising. In February 2020, the enforcer fined Google €12 million for abusing its dominance in the e-commerce market – a decision the company says it will appeal against.
Gönenç Gürkaynak is also assisting Google with ongoing compliance obligations resulting from the authority’s Android probe. In January 2020, Gönenç Gürkaynak secured acquittals for two logistics companies accused of forming anticompetitive agreements with parcel delivery companies such as TNT and UPS.
ELİG Gürkaynak boasts an impressive roster of clients for whom it has recently provided merger control advice, including General Electric, Rolls-Royce, The Walt Disney Company and Mercedes-Benz. The firm recently secured local clearance for several global deals, representing Thales in its acquisition of Gemalto, Nidec in its purchase of Whirlpool and The Walt Disney Company in its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The team also regularly assists Turkish companies in sectors such as shipping and energy to obtain all-important exemptions from competition rules.