Assist. Prof. Dr. Ekin Korkmaz Göka (Atılım University): Regulating Digital Markets in Turkey: Harmony or Mishmash?

About the Speaker:
Dr. Ekin KORKMAZ GÖKA is an assistant professor of civil law and the law of obligations at Atılım University, Faculty of Law. She holds an LL. M. degree in EU Competition Law from Brussels School of Competition (2023) and a doctorate in Private Law from Bilkent University (2021). She carried out a significant part of her doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg and at the University of Münster. She was also a post-doctoral fellow in competition law at the latter. She is the author of the book Subrogation under Turkish Law of Obligations (2021) and of a number of articles in national and international journals as well as of book chapters on civil law and competition law.

Dr. KORKMAZ GÖKA is currently teaching civil law and law of obligations at Atılım University, and competition law at Ankara Medipol University. She is also contributing to a research project for Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), which is a critical analysis of the current sectoral legislation on digital platforms in Turkey.

About the topic:
Digital platforms have raised many challenging issues for competition law and policy over the last decade. The unique characteristics of these platforms have made it difficult for traditional competition policy to respond to the emerging needs of markets. Much attention has been paid to ensuring fair and open competition in the digital world without harming innovation. Following the example of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Article 19(a) of the German Competition Act (GWB), Turkey took the first step towards regulating digital markets by amending Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce in 2022. This amendment introduced various ex ante obligations for ‘electronic commerce intermediary service providers’ exceeding certain net transaction volumes, and empowered the Ministry of Trade to impose sanctions in case of non-compliance. Shortly thereafter, on 14 October, draft amendments to Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition were shared with certain parties, although they were not directly published. The proposed amendments introduce a wide range of ex ante interventions regarding companies providing core platform services and having ‘significant market power’. The Turkish Competition Board has been empowered to designate ‘significant market power’ and to implement the proposed measures. These amendments to Law No. 4054 are expected to enter into force this year, but the relationship between them and the amended version of Law No. 6563 remains unclear. Both amendments bear significant traces of the DMA and the GWB. However, some provisions are entirely unique. This presentation discusses the current legal situation regarding the regulation of digital markets in Turkey and aims to make sense of the aforementioned polyphony.

About the Seminar Series:
The seminar series “Current Research on Turkish Law” regularly invites outstanding scholars and practitioners working on different topics of Turkish private law to present and discuss their findings. The seminar series particularly aims to create a platform where both international researchers interested in Turkish law and Turkish researchers working on comparative law can come together and exchange scholarly ideas. Participation is open to all interested students and researchers.