Essential facility doctrine and ıts effect on intellectual property rights

?Essential Facility Doctrine?, considered within the context of obligation to contract, is composed of cases where refusal of use of the possession that is obligatory for the competitors to operate in related markets of the undertaking in dominant position comes into question. The Doctrine constitutes an exception to contractual liberty. This study, analyses obligation to contract in general and within both Constitutional Law and Law of Obligations.Primarily, practice of such doctrine on physical assets is considered as the main subject, and then its applicability in IPR, as intangible assets, is analyzed within Turkish and European Competition Law. Since emergence and implementation of the doctrine depends on decisions of the Commission of EC, CFI, CJEU and the Competition Board, several court decision reviews are employed. As its practice criteria differ according to the features of the concrete case, the doctrine of essential facility cannot be explained without examining the decisions case-by- case. Since the Treaty Establishing the EC has been replaced by TFEU, both Article 82 of EC Treaty and Article 102 of TFEU are included in the study, and it has been concluded that no substantial change has been made in content of Article 82. This study, touches upon the history of the Doctrine, and discusses the doctrine of European Competition Law, and practice in Turkey and related decisions.This study has the approach that IP law and competition law are vis- à -vis complementary, and that while IPRs provide technological innovation, competition law aims to increase economical growth and consumer welfare.