Competition Board concluded the investigation conducted concerning the claim that the Act no 4054 was violated through the abuse of dominant position in the markets for goods and services as well as prevention and distortion of competition by using the “Protocol on the Provision of Drugs from Turkish Pharmacists' Association member pharmacists by persons under the Social Security Institution,” signed on 01.02.2012 between the Social Security Institution and the Turkish Pharmacists' Association, and the transactions connected to the Protocol in question to ensure exclusive distribution of prescriptions and allocation thereof according to pre-determined queues/quotas.

The investigation was launched in response to the Ankara 9th Administrative Court decision dated 19.11.2015 and numbered E:2014/1622, K:2015/1811, annulling the previous Board decision on the subject, dated 19.02.2014 and numbered 14-07/132-59 which had rejected the complaint in accordance with article 41 of the Act no 4054 and had not launched investigation.

The investigation, conducted within the framework of the Competition Board decisions dated 30.03.2016 and 29.06.2016, and numbered 16-12/191-M and 16-22/393-M respectively, took the issues raised in the aforementioned court decisions into consideration and examined whether the Turkish Pharmacists' Association and nine pharmacists’ chambers violated the Act no 4054.

As a result of the discussion of the file by the Competition Board on 13.07.2017, it was decided that the “Protocol on the Provision of Drugs from Turkish Pharmacists' Association member pharmacists by persons under the Social Security Institution,” signed between the Social Security Institution and the Turkish Pharmacists' Association, and the connected practices did not fall under the Act no 4054 since the Social Security Institution did not have the nature of an undertaking with respect to the subject matter of the file, and that consequently an administrative fine under article 16 of the same Act could not be imposed on the associations of undertakings under investigation.

Click here for the text of the pronouncement (in Turkish) for the decision dated 13.07.2017 and numbered 17-22/362-158, the reasoned version of which will be notified later and which can be appealed before Ankara Administrative Courts.