Turkish Competition Authority Opens An Investigation Against Apple

The Turkish Competition Authority ('The Authority') has announced that it has opened an investigation against Apple Inc. and Apple Teknoloji ve Satış Limited Şirketi with a decision dated 21.05.2024 and numbered 24-23/525-M on the grounds that Apple Inc. mandates its own payment systems.

In its press release, the Authority stated that it had opened an investigation because of suspicions that Apple was not allowing the use of alternative payment systems in the App Store and was not providing users with information about alternative channels, and that it would investigate whether access to more affordable options was being restricted.

The Authority also stated that links to alternative channels outside the application were prevented from being included in the application. In this respect, it was stated that the investigation would examine whether the payment system had been made compulsory and the developers' freedom of choice removed, while at the same time the 30% commission deducted from sales would be examined.

In this context, it was decided to open an investigation to determine whether Apple Inc. and Apple Teknoloji ve Satış Limited Şirketi violated Article 6 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition by not allowing the use of alternative payment systems in the App Store and by applying anti-steering provisions to mobile application developers.

You can access the full text of the desicion here.

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