COMPETITION AUTHORITY PUBLISHED A GUIDE ON EXAMINING DIGITAL DATA IN ON-SITE EXAMINATIONS

15.10.2020

The Turkish Competition Authority has published "Guidelines for the Examination of Digital Data at On-Site Examinations" in light of the amendments made to the Law no. 7246 and Article 15 of the Law on the Protection of Competition ("Law") in order to explain the procedure to be applied in the processes of digital data analysis.

According to the Guide:

  • Personal devices may also be subject to the examination if it is decided that mobile communication devices such as mobile phones and tablets contain digital data related to the undertaking or not. Devices that are completely peculiar to private use will not be subject to the examination.
  • If deemed necessary during the examination, digital data may be partially or completely copied to different data stores. Documents deemed necessary to be copied at the end of the examination will be copied in two separate copies and one of the copies will be delivered to the undertaking.      
  • As a rule, the examination will be completed in the premises of the undertaking, but if deemed necessary, the examination can be continued in the digital forensics laboratories. However, the process of analysing the data obtained from mobile phones will be completed at the enterprise site.
  • Data copied during on-site examinations will benefit from protection under the attorney-client privilege.

You can reach the full text of the Guide (in Turkish) here.

Should you have any queries and/or remarks, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr