The Competition Board opened an investigation on 10.11.2022 about the claims that Saint-Joseph Private French High School, Saint Benoît Private French High School, Notre-Dame de Sion Private French High School, Saint-Michel Private French High School and Sainte Pulchérie Private French High School, which are private secondary education institutions operating in İstanbul, fixed school registration fees and the elements that constitute the fee as well as the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers in order to determine whether the schools in question violated article 4 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition.

Upon the evaluation of the findings obtained as a result of the examinations and observations made under the scope of the investigation within the framework of the relevant legislation and case law, it was concluded that the parties to the investigation Saint-Joseph Private French High School, Saint Benoît Private French High School, Notre-Dame de Sion Private French High School, Saint-Michel Private French High School and Sainte Pulchérie Private French High School

• violated Article 4 of the Act no 4054 because they fixed school registration fees and the elements that constitute the fee,
• violated article 4 of the Act no 4054  because they fixed the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers.

As known Article 4 of the Act no 4054 prohibits agreements and concerted practices between undertakings, and decisions and practices of associations of undertakings which have as their object or effect or likely effect the prevention, distortion or restriction of competition directly or indirectly in a particular market for goods or services. Recently, many competition agencies, including Turkish Competition Authority, have focused on competition infringements in the labor market. Salary/wage-fixing agreements, one of the competition infringements in the labor market, aim to coordinate salaries, wages or perquisites as well as other rights granted to employees among employers. Sharing sensitive information about the said issues for this purpose may lead to similar results to price fixing agreements by making competitors’ wage structure similar. Therefore, fixing school fees and teachers’ salaries result in similar concerns in the market.

As a result of the infringements found within the scope of the investigation, the following administrative fines were imposed:

• 3.339.516,51 TL for fixing school registration fees, 2.226.344,34 TL for fixing the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers to SaintJoseph Private French High School,
• 3.279.720,74 TL for fixing school registration fees and the elements that constitute the fee, 2.186.480,49 TL for fixing the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers  to Saint Benoît Private French High School,
• 2.532.943,46 TL for fixing school registration fees and elements that constitute the fee, 1.688.628,97 TL for fixing the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers  to NotreDame de Sion Private French High School,
•  1.745.532,89 TL for fixing school registration fees and the elements that constitute the fee, 1.163.688,59 TL for fixing the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers  to Saint Michel Private French High School,
• 1.897.231,86 TL for fixing school registration fees and the elements that constitute the fee, 1.264.821,24 TL for fixing the salaries of Turkish schoolteachers to Sainte Pulchérie Private French High School.