The examination, which was made under the scope of article 13 of the Act no 4054 in order to determine whether it is necessary to withdraw the individual exemption granted by various decisions of the Competition Board to Bonus Contracts made by Türkiye Garanti Bankası AŞ as the program operator with program member banks within the framework of Bonus Credit Card Program Sharing, was concluded.

It was decided that Bonus Contracts cannot benefit from individual exemption on the grounds that certain provisions in Bonus Contracts restrict competition more than necessary under subparagraph (d) of article 5(1) of the Act no 4054.  Accordingly, it was decided that the provisions stating that a member merchant which is included in Bonus Program network cannot negotiate with other banks and payment institutions that are members of Bonus program within one month following the expiry of its membership contract in order to get an offer and cannot make a new contractual relationship should be removed from the contracts. In addition, the restriction that a member merchant which has a contract on program membership with a Bonus member bank or payment institution cannot negotiate with another Bonus member bank or payment institution should be narrowed so that it will not cover the negotiations with member merchants who want to get an offer to change their service providers.

Moreover, it was decided that if Bonus program member banks leave the program, the 6-month period for converting cards for changing the Bonus cards issued by those banks so that they will not carry Bonus logo should be revised as at least nine months and the provisions that the cards in question will be closed to installment transactions and winning bonus points should be removed from the contracts.  

It was also decided that the restrictions that ban Bonus Program member banks from making campaigns in a way to attract each other’s customers should be limited to the campaigns where Bonus Program member banks directly target the campaigns of other Bonus Program member banks.

Besides, it was decided that contract provisions stating that payment institutions will ensure that the member merchants to which they provide services will not make a statement that Bonus Program gives fewer rewards or is more expensive compared to other card/loyalty applications shall be removed from the contracts.

The decision stipulated that Bonus Contracts can benefit from exemption under the scope of article 5 of the Act no 4054 as long as they meet the requirements mentioned above. It was decided that Bonus Contracts which are deemed ineligible to benefit from individual exemption in their current form, should be amended and notified the Competition Board within nine months as of the notification of the reasoned Board decision and during the same time period the cooperation under the scope of Bonus Program shall be terminated; otherwise, an action shall be initiated against contract parties in accordance with the Act no 4054.