By Att. Ahmet Can SEBER
According to the Turkish Competition Authority’s decision dated 8 March 2013 and numbered 13-13/198-100, 12 banks has violated Article 4 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Act no 4054) by making agreements and/or engaging and/or cartelise in concerted practices related to deposit, loan and credit card services. Consequently, the Authority imposed heavy fines to 12 banks that involved the cartel activity amount in total of 1 million 957 thousand 468 TL. All the objections to this decision has been rejected by the Turkish Council State and it became final and binding.
According to decision of the Competition Authority, 12 banks listed below were involved to cartel activities between 21.08.2007 and 22.09.2011;
1. Akbank T.A.Ş. (AKBANK),
2. Denizbank A.Ş. (DENİZBANK),
3. Finans Bank A.Ş. (FİNANSBANK),
4. HSBC Bank A.Ş. (HSBC),
5. ING Bank A.Ş.(ING),
6. Türk Ekonomi Bankası A.Ş. (TEB),
7. Türkiye Garanti Bankası A.Ş. (GARANTİ), (Garanti Ödeme Sistemleri A.Ş.(GÖSAŞ) and Garanti Konut Finansmanı Danışmanlık A.Ş. (GKFD) )
8. Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş. (HALKBANK),
9. Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş. (İŞ BANKASI),
10. Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O. (VAKIFBANK),
11. Yapı ve Kredi Bankası A.Ş. (YKB)
12. T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş.(ZİRAAT)
According to Turkish Competition Authority’s determination, which is based on the Act On the Protection of Competition, article 4; “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 are illegal and prohibited.”
As the Competition Authority decides; the banks have arranged over a gentlemen agreement to increase the interest rate of;
- mortgage, 15 base points (0,15)
- consumer loan, 10 base points (0,10)
- vehicle loan, between 5 or 10 base points (0,5-0,20)
Competition Authority has also decided that the banks made cartel about the deposit, credit cards and other loans interest, but not revealed a specific rate.
For example; a real or legal person, who got mortgage from above mentioned banks at an interest rate of 1.15% resulted with the payment of 80.500 TL of interest. According to decision of the Competition Authority, the interest rate of the mortgage should have been 1.00%. This is to say that, such real or legal person should have paid 70.000 TL of interest. Therefore, such real or legal person is entitled to file a compensation lawsuit to recover its damages up to three fold of the overpaid amount as 31.500 TL. As of today, since there is no precedent has been revealed by the courts yet, multiple of the compensation stands unclear.
Consumers suffered from the cartel activities can file the compensation lawsuit before consumer courts and traders suffered from the cartel activities can file compensation lawsuit before commercial courts.
Our law firm in Turkey provides services to file three fold compensation lawsuit arises from cartel activities, on behalf of our clients. If you are faced with such services that falls in to scope of above mentioned criteria and you tend to follow up this case, please feel free to contact us.
Av. Ahmet Can ŞEBER
