The Communiqué Amending (“Amending Communiqué”) the Communiqué on Mergers and Acquisitions Calling for the Authorization of the Competition Board (“Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 04.03.2022 and numbered 31768.

The Amending Communiqué will enter into force within 2 months of the publication date. The relevant amendments can be summarized as follows:

  • The threshold regulated under the Communiqué (i) for the Turkish turnover of the asset or activity to be transferred in acquisition transactions and (ii) at least one of the transaction parties in merger transactions to be 30 million TRY has been increased. According to this; the new threshold has been determined as 250 million TRY.
  • It is regulated that the Turkish turnover of the asset or activity subject to the transfer in acquisition transactions and at least one of the transaction parties in merger transactions will be 250 million TRY.
  • In addition, the total Turkish turnover of the transaction parties, which was applied as 100 million TRY, was amended to 750 million TRY.
  • The threshold designated for the world turnover was increased from 500 million TRY to 3 billion TRY.
  • Another significant amendment is the exception brought to technology undertakings by the Amendment Communiqué. In this context, in transactions regarding the acquisition of technology undertakings operating in the Turkish geographical market or undertakings having R&D activities or providing services to users in Turkey; the threshold of 250 million TRY will not be applied.
  • As per the Amendment Communiqué, those considered as technology enterprises are the ones who engage in the following activities.
    • Digital platforms,
    • Software and game software,
    • Financial technologies,
    • Biotechnology,
    • Pharmacology,
    • Undertakings or related assets operating in the fields of agricultural chemicals and health technologies

With the Amendment Communiqué, the increase in concentration control in the technology markets will be a natural result. However, it is considered that the high growth in the thresholds compared to the old regulation will cause a decrease in the number of merger filings made to the Competition Authority.

You can access the full text of the Amendment Communiqué from here.