The Turkish Competition Board (the "Board") announced its final decision (numbered 18-42/670-329) for the full investigation on Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. ("Turkcell"), Vodafone Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. ("Vodafone") and TT Mobil İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. ("TT"); all major providers of telecommunication services in Turkey. The full investigation was conducted to determine whether the said companies violated Article 6 of Law No: 4054 on Protection of Competition ("Law") by obscuring their competitors' activities through bidding lower than SMS termination prices in bulk SMS tenders.
The Board unanimously concluded that Turkcell, Vodafone and TT are respectively in dominant position in SMS termination service market in Turkcell network, Vodafone network and TT network meaning that each network constituted a different market. Nonetheless, the Board ruled that the said companies did not abuse their dominant position hence did not violate Article 6 of the Law. Thus, the Board unanimously concluded not to impose an administrative fine.
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