Corporate group as an economic unity in company law and competition law in terms of legal liability

Corporate Group as an Economic Unity in Company Law and Competition Law in terms of Legal Liability One of the basic principles in Turkish Civil Law and Company Law is the principle of legal independence which states that companies with legal entity have legally independent status from the ones founding themselves. As a result of the above mentioned legal independence, the managing bodies of the companies are liable for any losses which result from companies' works and transactions under certain circumstances. Even though this basic principle is still valid, in today's economic conditions, as large scale companies operating nationally or internationally own many subsidiaries, and when these companies control and direct them in line with group interests, then the principle of legal independence fails to protect the relevant beneficiaries sufficiently. In order to protect the rights of these relevant beneficiaries, certain company law arrangements were made based on economic unity approach which makes it possible to hold liable not only the ones that make the apparent transaction and take actions but also the ones that are the minds and the will behind the transactions and actions, some practices like "de facto organ" and "piercing the corporate veil" were launched and doctrinal opinions like "loyalty obligation" were suggested. Additionally, arrangements and judgments which enable to hold parent company responsible for subsidiary's breach of rules on competition in order to protect consumers and competition order are also based on economic unity approach. In this thesis, the principle of legal independence, economic unity approach, the appearances of economic unity approach in Company Law and Competition Law and legal liability based on "control" in Company Law and Competition Law are discussed. Keywords: Economic unity, control, corporate group, legal liability.