Author: Ece Şahin
Introduction
Due to their increasing share in the economy and rapid growth rate, e-marketplace platforms have come under the increasing scrutiny of the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) as well as many competition authorities around the world. The first step of the Authority’s inspection of e-marketplace platforms was the initiation of a sectoral inquiry in June 2020. In line with the information and documents obtained during this inquiry, the E-Marketplace Platforms Sector Inquiry Preliminary Report (“Preliminary Report”) was published on July 2021. Following that, a finalized version of the policy recommendations from the Preliminary Report was published on the website of the Authority on April 2022 under the name of the E-Marketplace Platforms Sector Inquiry Final Report (“Final Report”).
The Final Report deals with various matters, such as e-commerce business models, e-marketplace platforms, platform behaviors giving rise to competition concerns and the like in great detail. This Article focuses on the main competition concerns and policy recommendations highlighted throughout the Final Report.
The Authority’s E-Marketplace Platforms Perspective: Main Determinations on the Competition Concerns
In the Authority’s own words, the sector inquiry on e-marketplace platforms was initiated to manage competition concerns that are difficult to manage with the traditional tools of competition law.[1] These competition concerns are classified in three groups: (i) inter-platform competition, (ii) intra-platform competition and (iii) consumer protection.
Inter-Platform Competition
The Final Report primarily states that inter-platform competition among the e-marketplace platforms is crucial.[2] Whereas the network effects[3] enhance market power of gatekeeper platforms, it is becoming much difficult for other platforms to gain market power. Accordingly, the Final Report concluded that the anti-competitive behavior of gatekeepers is capable of totally abolishing inter-platform competition.[4]
Another issue named in the Final Report relating to inter-platform competition is the prevention of data portability. The Authority determined that the most favored customer and exclusivity clauses of the agreements executed between platforms and users are preventing data portability. This statement is significant as it sets forth that data held by e-marketplace platforms is a matter of competition law. In the same vein, the Final Report explicitly mentions that seller and consumer data that are accessible to gatekeeper e-marketplace platforms can provide an important competitive power and advantage. This is why the presence of technical and behavioral obstacles for data portability is considered as a competitive concern by the Authority.[5]
