New Merger and Acquisition Legislation: Significant Increase in Turnover Thresholds

Important Updates from the Competition Authority

The Competition Authority has announced comprehensive updates to its regulations regarding merger and acquisition transactions, including changes to the Communiqué No. 2010/4. Existing regulations have been thoroughly reviewed, the turnover thresholds have been increased, and notification processes have been simplified.

Significant Increase in Turnover Thresholds

According to the new regulations, the applicable turnover thresholds for merger and acquisition transactions have been significantly increased. The new thresholds are as follows:

• Individual turnover threshold: Increased from 250 million TL to 1 billion TL
• Turkey turnover threshold: Increased from 750 million TL to 3 billion TL
• Global turnover threshold: Increased from 3 billion TL to 9 billion TL

Especially, exceptions for technology enterprises are now limited to companies operating in Turkey, and a new 250 million TL individual threshold will be required for transactions in this category.

Simplification of Notification

With the new regulations, some information requested from the parties has been removed from the Notification Form. Additionally, the information submission obligations for transactions with low market shares have been reduced. More facilitative regulations have also been introduced for venture capital transactions.

New Thresholds and Processes

Transactions that do not comply with the new turnover thresholds and are under review may be approved by the Authority's decision.

It has been stated that the changes came into effect upon publication of the communiqué in the Official Gazette, and the updated guidelines will be published on the Competition Authority's website.