Examination and inquiry procedures of the Turkish Competition Board and judicial review of the board's decisions

The first comprehensive regulation regarding special administrative procedure in Turkish law has been made under the Act on the Protection of Competition numbered 4054 ("APC"). Pursuant thereto, issues with respect to the procedure in examinations and inquiries of the Turkish Competition Board and judicial review of the Board's decisions were regulated between the articles of 40 and 55 of the APC in general. This study entitled "Examination and Inquiry Procedures of the Turkish Competition Board and Judicial Review of the Board's Decisions" aims to analyze administrative procedure which is also known as quasi-judicial proceedings, followed by the Board pursuant to art. 4 and 6 of the APC in the light of both national and EU legislation (which can be deemed as the reference code for the APC and other competition legislation) and practices. Moreover, for special administrative procedures to be clearly and correctly examined, the terms of administrative procedure and general administrative procedure which are the basis of it must be explained. Due to the fact that there is no regulation related to such legal terms under Turkish law, I conducted a legal assessment grounded upon legal doctrines to analyze them. This study is comprised of an introduction, a conclusion, and three chapters. The introduction part sets forth the short history of Turkish competition rules, the scope, limitation, and plan of this thesis. In the first chapter, I provided knowledge and explanations regarding the administrative procedure, general administrative procedure and special administrative procedure in general. Additionally, through considering articles 40-55 of the APC, I analyzed administrative nature of the procedure followed by the Board, evaluated such procedure in terms of special administrative procedure and examined the principles prevailing to the procedure in examinations and inquiries. The second chapter begins with comparison of the procedure in examinations and inquiries of the Board with other legal terms of which are the basis, and/or from which it has been inspired; and after organic structure of the Turkish Competition Authority and the Board was evaluated. Afterwards, within the process in examinations and inquiries of the Board, stage of preliminary inquiry was examined, and stage of investigation was discussed until the period before investigation report was prepared. In the third and last chapter, the subjects of exchange of the report and written pleas among the delegation and undertakings, the hearing and stage of final decision and judicial review of the final decisions of the Board (from the point of procedural-formational deficiencies) were examined under the title of the period after investigation report was prepared. The study concludes with the results which have been reached at the end of the thesis and provides suggestions based on these results.