On October 12, 2011, the European Commission published the “Turkey 2011 Progress Report” (the “Report”). The Turkish Competition Policy has been included in the Report in the context of “[Turkey’s] ability to assume the obligations of membership”. According to the report, in the field of antitrust and merger control, Turkey made good progress by implementing legislation on mergers including guidelines on merger remedies; bringing about closer alignment with European Union merger rules. The report also commends Turkey’s competition policy by indicating that the Competition Authority enforces antitrust rules effectively and with a satisfactory level of independence. According to the report, the Authority further strengthened its record in enforcing antitrust rules with a number of landmark cases, particularly in the banking and automotive sectors.

Communiqué on the Increase of the Lower Limit for Administrative Fines
Communiqué on the Increase of the Lower Limit for Administrative Fines, as specified in paragraph 1, Article 16 of the Act on the Protection of Competition (the “Act”) (published in the Official Gazette dated December 13, 2011 numbered 28141) (Communiqué No: 2012/1) (the “Communiqué”) entered into force on January 1, 2012.  Pursuant to the Communiqué, the lower limit for administrative fines regulated in Paragraph 1, Article 16 of the Act has been increased by approximately 10%