Anticompetitive agreements in the information and communication technologies sector

Information and communication technologies as an irreplaceable element, interactive tool and the backbone of the social, commercial and academic life, has led to the existence of the new economy in which the factors of innovation and intellectual work productivity becomes one of the most important resources of the competition. The competitive process of the market is dynamic and versatile unlike physical markets, that the competition does not rotate only on price, also on innovation, IP rights and data which promises the winner rivals to take all. Especially the accelaration created by the online sale organisation, platformisation, price transparency and data-collection and usage had changed the enterprises' distribution strategies, business models and market dynamics at all. Depending on these developments, the forms of the anti-competitive agreements between enterprises have been restructured by the use of ICT such as pricing algorithms, platform bans forms and the issues of competition due to their own characteristics had been differentiated from competition issues observed in the traditional market. Within the Chapter I of the thesis key terms, scope and history of the ICT sector is defined and followed by the Chapter II, including evaluation about the characteristics of ICT market and dynamic competition concept. By the last chapter of the thesis the various forms of anti-competitive agreements in ICT sector, such as resale pricing restrictions, use of pricing algorithms, dual pricing, online sale vii restrictions, marketplace (platform) bans, geo-blocking and data exchange agreements has been examined. Keywords: Information and Communication Technologies Sector, Competition