The Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation ["Regulation"], repealing the previous regulation dated 2014,  entered into force upon its publication in the Official Gazette no. 31907 dated 29 July 2022. The new Regulation introduces significant updates within the framework of the "Green Development Goals".

Fatma Ozen Karaca has joined Tirsan Treyler as an Assistant Manager Legal.

The Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) has published its Nadirkitap decision in which it evaluated the allegation as to whether Nadirkitap Bilişim ve Reklamcılık AŞ (“Nadirkitap”), a company providing mediation services in the online sale of the second-hand books through its website named www.nadirkitap.com, violated Article 4 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition (“Law No. 4054”) by way of hindering the activities of the competitors by way of not providing the data sets of its seller members who wish to market their products through rival intermediary service providers (“Investigation”). Upon its investigation, the Competition Board (“Board”) decided to impose an administrative monetary fine on Nadirkitap.

According to Turkish Commercial Code (“TCC”), some companies are defined as equity companies. Joint stock companies are one of these equity companies and are within the scope of "Principle of Maintenance of Share Capital" under TCC. The principle of maintenance of share capital requires full payment of the share capital value committed by the shareholders to the company and accordingly protecting the creditors of the company. In this context, considering that the shareholders already owe the capital payment to the joint stock company, this article will focus on how the shareholders may borrow money from the company and how the company may borrow money from the shareholder.

The sixth package of European Union sanctions imposed on Russia is a widely discussed topic, yet the overall levels of preparedness to adopt the associated energy import ban varies from one country to another. Indeed, with Russian oil and gas exports being such a dominant source of energy for a number of European countries, it remains to be seen how all of them adapt to the change. To gain insight into how certain EU member states and non-EU countries are (likely) to fare in the immediate wake of the ban, we reached out to legal professionals from Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Moldova.

The Turkish electricity market has been under a liberalization process since 2001. Specific steps had been taken during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s but the main amendment to the legal framework for the creation of a competitive electricity market was the enactment of the Electricity Market Act No. 4628, which was brought into force in 2001. As a result, the integrated structure of the electricity market was to be unbundled, following the privatization of distribution activity in accordance with a specific timetable.

Clifford Chance has advised the lenders on the EUR 155 million financing of the Kutahya Integrated Health Campus project design, construction, operation, and maintenance under the public-private partnership model. Ergun Law Firm and White & Case's Turkish affiliate GKC Partners advised the sponsor Guris Construction and Engineering. 

Cakmak Attorney Partnership has advised Re-Pie Asset Management Company on its subscription of shares in Procenne. 

The Law No. 7416 on Amendment of the Law on Regulation of Electronic Commerce (“Amendment Law”), published in the Official Gazette of July 7, 2022[, introduces new obligations for e-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers. Most of the provisions of the Amendment Law will enter into force on January 1, 2023 but the Amendment Law also stipulates different effective dates and transition periods for certain obligations. Amendment Law’s liability regime is tiered in line with the criteria of net transaction volumes and order numbers in a calendar year. E-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers under this regime should follow certain compliance steps in due time.

The Pelister Atayilmaz Enkur law office and Abcoo have advised the Egeli Egesan Group and its shareholders on the sale of a 75% stake in the group to Tyrolit. GEMS Legal Schindhelm advised the buyer.

Turunc has advised Bogazici Ventures on participating in a USD 700,000 investment round into Enhencer. Kinstellar Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer advised Diffusion Capital Partners on leading the round.

Norton Rose Fulbright and its Turkish affiliate Pekin Bayar Mizrahi have advised the International Holding Company on its AED 1.8 billion acquisition of a 50% stake in Kalyon Enerji, via IHC subsidiary International Energy Holding. White & Case's Turkish affiliate GKC Partners advised Kalyon.

Today, the futuristic enthusiasm which was created in minds with the term "artificial intelligence" is accompanied by some anxiety for uncertainty. The term "artificial intelligence", about which a wide variety of definitions have already been made, means systems or machines that imitate human intelligence to perform tasks and can gradually improve itself with the information it collects. Autonomous delivery robots that can bring our orders to our home, a chess robot that breaks its opponent's finger in an uncompromising way because of a faulty move, robot surgeons which successfully perform abdominal surgery without any help and many other AI algorithms that can write poetry, produce visual works, and write articles for newspapers…

Erdem & Erdem has advised the Acibadem Healthcare Group on its acquisition of the Private Orthopedia Hospital in Adana.

With the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Authority’s [the “BRSA”] decision numbered 10250 and dated 24 June 2022 [the “Restriction Decision”], TRL borrowing by Companies [“Companies”], other than banks and financial institutions, which are subject to independent audit has become subject to a foreign currency asset [“FX-Asset”] restriction was introduced.

Kinstellar and its Turkish affiliate Gen Temizer Ozer have advised Baskent Dogalgaz Dagitim and Torunlar Enerji on their acquisition of CEZ Group's 50% stake in Akcez Enerji. Skils and, reportedly, Norton Rose Fulbright Turkish affiliate Pekin Bayar Mizrahi advised the CEZ Group on the sale.

The Competition Board (the “Board”), the competent decision-making organ of the Turkish Competition Authority, no longer has the quorum required to render final/executable decisions as the tenure of three (3) members came to an end as of the beginning of August 2022. Final decisions, including merger clearance decisions, closure of pre-investigation and investigation procedures, are currently pending while the Board is awaiting official assignment of new board members to re-establish final/executable decision quorum.

Former CicekSepeti.com / Lolaflora.com Chief Legal Counsel Dilek Akdas Kokenek has joined Moral, Kinikoglu, Pamukkale, Kokenek as Partner and Head of the IT & C department.