Judicial Review of the Turkish Competition Board’s Decisions

In Turkish competition law, in line with the Turkish Constitution, Article 55 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Law No. 4054) authorises the administrative courts for judicial review of the decisions of the Turkish Competition Board (Board). Accordingly, legal actions against administrative sanctions may be pursued before the administrative courts, and therefore, the Board’s decisions that impose sanctions may be challenged. However, not all of the Board’s decisions concerning substantive issues involve an administrative sanction. For instance, the Board, in carrying out its duties, may request information from undertakings or perform on-site examinations at undertakings’ premises. Similarly, the Board’s decisions to launch a preliminary investigation do not in and of themselves involve any administrative sanction.

Law No. 4054 divides the Board’s decisions into two main categories, namely, final decisions and interim decisions. Final decisions of the Board are subject to judicial review, which means that interim decisions cannot, in principle, be directly challenged before the Board renders its final decision on the substance of the matter. There is, however, a specific type of interim decision, i.e., interim measure decision, which Law No. 4054 allows to be brought to judicial review without having to wait for the Board’s final decision as the relevant interim decision involves an administrative sanction. Indeed, a Board decision that imposes an interim measure may be directly subject to an action for annulment.

Administrative acts can be brought to judicial review by filing an appeal within sixty calendar days from the date on which the reasoned decision is received by the plaintiff unless other time limits are provided under specific codes. Appeals against Board’s decisions should be filed before the Ankara administrative courts, and the proceedings involve two separate rounds of petition exchanges and an oral hearing in Ankara, if requested. The time limit to bring an annulment action against the Board’s regulatory decisions before the Council of State is also sixty days. Moreover, the parties may appeal the first instance court’s decision before the Regional Administrative Court within thirty days as of its service. Similarly, the time limit to file an appeal against the Regional Administrative Court’s decision before the Council of State is thirty days as of the service of the Regional Administrative Court’s decision.

For more information on judicial review in Turkish competition law, please feel free to reach out to ELIG Gurkaynak at +90 212 327 1724 or through gonenc.gurkaynak@elig.com.