The Final Decision Regarding the Investigation Conducted on Sahibinden Bilgi Teknolojileri Pazarlama ve Ticaret A.Ş. has been Announced

Rekabet Hukuku

The final decision of the file, which was examined according to the Report and Additional Opinion issued in relation to the investigation conducted against Sahibinden Bilgi Teknolojileri Pazarlama ve Ticaret A.Ş. ("SAHİBİNDEN") pursuant to the Board Decision of the Competition Board (''Board'') dated 30.09.2021 and numbered 21-46/655-M, was shared with the public on 23.08.2023.

The key takeaways from the Decision are as follows:

SAHİBİNDEN has a dominant position in the online platform services markets for property sales/rental activities of corporate members and vehicle sales activities of corporate members,
That SAHİBİNDEN has made it difficult for its corporate members to use more than one platform by preventing them from transferring their data, has implemented de facto/contractual exclusivity through this way and through the non-competition obligation imposed in its contracts, has made it difficult for its competitors to operate, and therefore has violated Article 6 of Law No. 4054 by abusing its dominant position,
Therefore, pursuant to the third paragraph of Article 16 of Law No. 4054 and the provisions of subparagraph (b) and the second paragraph of the first paragraph of Article 5 of the "Regulation on Fines to be imposed in Case of Agreements, Concerted Practices and Decisions Restricting Competition and Abuse of Dominant Position", the Board shall impose a fine on the annual gross income determined by the Board at the end of the fiscal year 2021,

40.150.533,15-TL administrative fine,

To SAHİBİNDEN to terminate the infringement and to ensure the establishment of effective competition in the market

In order to fulfil within 3 (three) months from the notification of the reasoned decision and to certify to the Authority; the contract signed between SAHİBİNDEN and corporate members shall be reorganised so as not to include the provisions subject to violation,
In order to fulfil its obligations within a period of 2 (two) months following the notification of the reasoned decision and to submit the compliance measures it has prepared to the Authority at the latest one month before the deadline, to establish the infrastructure that will enable corporate members to effectively transfer the property and vehicle advertisement data they enter on the SAHİBİNDEN platform to competing platforms and to keep the data contained in these advertisements up to date, without any charge,
In the event that the corporate members who have memberships on competing platforms request to transfer the property and vehicle advertisement data on these platforms to the SAHİBİNDEN platform and to keep the data contained in the advertisements up to date on the SAHİBİNDEN platform and the competing platforms accept this request; SAHİBİNDEN shall ensure that the requests from the competing platforms are met uninterruptedly and effectively by establishing the infrastructure that will enable the members to transfer and keep their data up to date as soon as reasonably possible without any delay and without any charge,

fulfilment of their obligations,

To reject the allegations that it makes it difficult for members to use more than one platform by imposing sub-user limitations on corporate members, does not publish doped advertisements transparently, does not act transparently in the natural advertisement application, favours itself through the ranking algorithm and favours itself / gives misleading results in other services it provides (such as real estate/vehicle valuation, directing to the authorised dealer in zero vehicle sales, providing expertise) and abuses its dominant position by causing limitation of competition in these ways.

You can access the full text of the Decision here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr