Competitive Edge: Legal Insights
June 2026 | Başaran Law Firm
TÜRKİYE’S M&A RULEBOOK GETS A REFRESH
The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA) published four updated M&A guidelines on 4 May 2026, aligning its guidance documents with the February 2026 amendments to Communiqué 2010/4, the regulation governing transactions that require TCA clearance.
The key changes: the "stacking rule" under Article 8(5), which treats multiple transactions between the same parties within three years as a single deal for turnover purposes, now explicitly covers joint venture formations. This directly affects private equity platforms and serial acquirers. Türkiye sales must be included in worldwide turnover calculations, and separate guidance has been added for calculating Turkish turnover in technology sector deals. The Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines have also been updated to address co-operative effects between joint venture parents.
For any company planning a Türkiye filing in 2026, a review against the updated guidelines, now available on the TCA's website, is the necessary first step.
MASTERCARD AND VISA MAKE COMMITMENTS TO CLOSE TÜRKİYE PAYMENT INVESTIGATION
The Turkish Competition Board closed its investigation into Mastercard and Visa on 2 April 2026 (decision 26-11/351-133), accepting behavioural commitments rather than imposing a fine.
The investigation, launched on 24 October 2024 (decision 24-43/1015-M), identified concerns in two markets: the card scheme services market, where both networks had practices that obstructed rival payment providers, and the digital wallet market, where Mastercard's Masterpass platform faced separate scrutiny.
To resolve the card scheme concerns, both companies committed to making acquirer discount and incentive programmes more transparent, objective, and proportionate, and offered improvements on cross-border interchange commission rates. On Masterpass, Mastercard committed to fairer product placement and campaign terms for merchants, ensuring competing digital wallets receive equal visibility at checkout.
A major fintech investigation closed without a fine through remedies that directly benefit banks, merchants, and consumers. The outcome reflects the TCA's pragmatic approach to regulating global payment infrastructure.
UNILEVER AND MAGNUM FACE INVESTIGATION WITH IMMEDIATE INTERIM MEASURES
The Turkish Competition Board opened a formal investigation into Unilever Sanayi ve Ticaret Türk AŞ and Magnum Dondurma AŞ on 22 April 2026 (decision 26-15/434-M), targeting alleged violations of Articles 4 and/or 6 of Law No. 4054 in the industrial ice cream market, including suspected non-compliance with a prior Board decision from 18 March 2021 (21-15/190-80).
The Board did not wait for the investigation to conclude. It simultaneously imposed interim measures: in any retail point with 100 m² or less of closed sales area where only a Unilever freezer is accessible, Unilever and Magnum must immediately dedicate 30% of that freezer to rivals as a single contiguous block, labelled "This space is reserved for competitor products." No Unilever or Magnum product may occupy that block. Where the retailer requests it, the share rises to 50%.
The dominant player's own hardware becomes the access mechanism for its rivals. For FMCG companies running exclusive freezer programmes in Türkiye, immediate compliance review is warranted.
KYOCERA FINED ₺14.5 MILLION, GESKOPIKIT ₺3.9 MILLION FOR RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE
The Turkish Competition Board resolved its investigation into KYOCERA and Geskopikit Dijital Kopyalama AŞ (GESKOPİKİT) on 13 May 2026, deploying settlement and commitment procedures simultaneously.
The investigation (launched 6 November 2025, decision 25-41/991-M) covered three vertical restraints: resale price maintenance (RPM, the practice of fixing minimum resale prices for distributors), territorial and customer sales restrictions, and blocking parallel imports.
Both companies settled on the RPM conduct, receiving 25% fine reductions for co-operation. The Board found both in violation of Article 4 of Law No. 4054: KYOCERA received a final fine of 14,486,950.34 TL on its 2024 gross revenues (decision 26-16/490-179, 30 April 2026); GESKOPİKİT received 3,946,922.10 TL (decision 26-09/267-95, 12 March 2026). For the territorial restrictions and parallel import blocking, both submitted commitments that the Board accepted and made binding.
The case illustrates the TCA's hybrid approach: fines for per se RPM violations, structural commitments where behavioural remedy is more effective than punishment.
EU AGREES TO SIMPLIFY THE AI ACT: NEW DEADLINES, NEW PROHIBITIONS
The European Commission, Parliament, and Council reached political agreement on 7 May 2026 on the Digital Omnibus on AI, a package of targeted amendments to the EU AI Act that simplifies compliance without weakening the regulation's core protections.
The agreement delivers long-awaited timeline certainty. High-risk AI systems deployed in biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, employment, migration, and border control must comply by 2 December 2027. Systems embedded in physical products such as lifts or toys face a 2 August 2028 deadline. SME privileges are extended to small mid-cap companies. Regulatory sandboxes, including a new EU-level sandbox, become more accessible. Overlaps with the Machinery Regulation are clarified, removing duplication for industrial manufacturers.
For citizens, AI "nudification" applications are explicitly prohibited. The Commission AI Office's enforcement powers over general-purpose models and very large platforms are strengthened. Formal adoption by Parliament and Council remains pending.
TEMU FINED €200 MILLION BY EU COMMISSION FOR DSA BREACH
The European Commission issued a €200 million fine to Temu on 28 May 2026 under the Digital Services Act (DSA), after finding the platform failed to properly assess the systemic risks of illegal products on its marketplace, a core obligation for Very Large Online Platforms.
Temu's 2024 risk assessment relied on general e-commerce sector data rather than platform-specific evidence. It materially underestimated how often EU consumers encounter illegal goods and failed to assess how Temu's own design, including recommender algorithms and influencer promotion programmes, amplifies their reach. The Commission's mystery shopping exercise confirmed the harm: a very high proportion of chargers failed basic safety tests; a high proportion of baby toys posed medium-to-high severity risks through hazardous chemicals or suffocation hazards.
Temu must submit a remediation action plan by 28 August 2026. The message to all VLOP-designated platforms is direct: DSA risk assessments are a substantive legal obligation, not a formality.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION CLEARS ARLA'S ACQUISITION OF DMK AND DOC WITHOUT CONDITIONS
The European Commission granted unconditional Phase I clearance on 28 May 2026 to Arla Foods amba's acquisition of Deutsches Milchkontor eG (DMK) and Drents Overijsselse Coöperatie Kaas U.A. (DOC) under the EU Merger Regulation (case M.12115, notified 17 April 2026).
The deal consolidates three major dairy cooperatives: Arla (7,000+ farmers across Denmark, Sweden, the UK, and Germany), DMK (~4,000 German farmers), and DOC (~600 Dutch and German farmers).
The Commission reviewed raw milk procurement in Northern Germany, private-label dairy supply to retailers, and whey-based ingredients supply. No material concerns were found. Arla's cooperative structure, under which all farmer-members receive the same price regardless of location, removes both the ability and incentive to reduce farmgate prices post-merger. Sufficient competing suppliers remain across all reviewed markets.
Phase I clearance without conditions demonstrates that large-scale cooperative dairy consolidation can navigate EU merger control where the commercial economics support a no-harm finding.
FTC ORDERS COX MEDIA GROUP TO PAY NEARLY $1 MILLION OVER "ACTIVE LISTENING" AI MARKETING TOOL
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) required Cox Media Group and two other firms to pay nearly $1 million combined to settle charges that they deceived customers about an AI-powered marketing service marketed as an "active listening" tool that allegedly used consumers' device microphones to capture ambient audio for advertising targeting.
The service was presented to clients as capable of monitoring private conversations to identify purchase intent and deliver targeted ads. The FTC found the companies made materially deceptive representations about how the technology operated and how consumer data was processed.
The settlement signals a growing enforcement priority: AI-driven audience profiling that operates beyond what users knowingly consent to. Where marketing technology claims to capture passive data through audio monitoring or behavioural inference, the FTC is holding platform providers and media agencies jointly liable. Companies offering AI-powered audience intelligence tools should audit what their systems actually capture and how that capability is described to clients.
*This publication is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice.