Former White & Case associated firm in Turkey GKC Partners Partner Ceren Sen has joined the EBRD as a Principal Counsel. 

On February 25, four leading lawyers in Turkey sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the Turkish technology sector, its recent developments, and the technology sector-related regulatory landscape.

On March 4, 2022 the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) published the Communiqué No. 2022/2 on the Amendment of Communiqué No. 2010/4 on the Mergers and Acquisitions Subject to the Approval of the Competition Board (“Amendment Communiqué”). The Amendment Communiqué introduces certain new regulations concerning the Turkish merger control regime, which will fundamentally affect the notifiabiliy analysis of the transactions and the merger control notifications submitted to the Authority.

Cagdas Umut Vardar has joined Sanli & Partners as a Name Partner with the firm becoming Vardar Sanli.

With the amendment dated November 24, 2021 to the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Code No. 2004 [“BEC”] the sale of seized assets was to be conducted fully in an electronic environment. However, it was provided that the implementation of this provision would begin with the adoption of the relevant regulation.

The rise in the popularity of NFTs also raises some questions regarding copyright law. Earlier last year, an independent NFT dealer calling itself the “Global Art Museum” tokenized digitized versions of the famous artworks from many collections such as Rembrandt's “Night Watch” that has been on display at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands for years and other art from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Birmingham Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Nuclear Regulation Law No. 7381 [the “Law”] was published in the Official Gazette on March 8, 2022 and entered into force on the same day. The Law mainly regulates nuclear energy and ionizing radiation activities, as well as operators, facilities, devices, and other matters associated with these activities in detail.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Vladimir Rangeloff of Kambourov & Partners to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

Contributed by CMS.

The Turkish Competition Authority (the "Authority") published its Obilet/Biletal decision where it conditionally approved the acquisition of Biletal İç ve Dış Ticaret A.Ş.’s (“Biletal”) sole control by Obilet Bilişim Sistemleri A.Ş. (“Obilet”) and decided that the proposed transaction would not result in significant impediment of effective competition under Article 7 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition ("Law No. 4054")[1] subject to commitments proposed by the parties.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Silvije Cipcic-Bragadin of Cipcic-Bragadin Mesic and Associates to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Gabor Bebok of Pontes Budapest to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

In March 2021, a digital artwork called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” was sold by Christies, a British auction house, for $69 million. In other words: Someone paid almost $70 million for a picture on the Internet. Shortly after this sale, cryptographic tokens known as “Non-Fungible Tokens” (“NFT”) with a blockchain technology infrastructure quickly became a part of the mainstream in the art and technology world. Hundreds of millions of dollars of NFT sales now occur each week through public marketplaces like Foundation, OpenSea, and Nifty Gateway.

The board of directors [“Board”] stands out as a body that undertakes the management and representation duties of a joint stock corporation and is endowed with the power that can affect the interests of the corporation as well as its related parties. Such broad authority brings with it the same degree of responsibility. Although such responsibility mostly results in legal liability, the legislator did not remain silent on the fact that the activities of the Board are directly related to the market economy, and thus, imposed criminal sanctions in connection with the actions of the members. In this respect, the use of management and representation powers by the Board members or their personal actions may lead to criminal liability.

From promoting a new brand to preserving the market presence of an already established one, User Generated Content (“UGC”) has become an uncanny tool to initiate and preserve consumer engagement. With that, social network providers have transformed from mere conduits of social interaction between individuals, to multifaceted platforms that enable businesses to reach their consumers. As UGC became more and more mainstream, pulled millions of users and created some of the biggest tech companies, many countries try to catch up with regulations such as Turkey.

Significant amendments were introduced to the Communiqué of the Competition Authority on Mergers and Acquisitions Requiring Authorization of the Turkish Competition Board, numbered 2010/4, with the Communiqué published in the Official Gazette on March 4, 2022. In this respect, while the turnover thresholds taken into account in mergers and acquisitions to determine whether Competition Board’s approval is necessary are increased, exceptional rules are adopted in relation to transactions involving technology companies. These amendments will become effective two months after their publication, i.e., as of May 4, 2022.

On April 5, 2022, leading lawyers from across all of CEE will be coming together for the Dealer's Choice Conference and Deals of the Years Awards Banquet. Leading up to the event, we spoke with Oana Ijdelea of Ijdelea & Associates to learn what they are looking forward to the most.

As announced last week, the Turkish Competition Authority has recently amended the legislation relating to the Turkish merger control regime through an amendment communiqué. This piece of additional analysis is to explore the scope of sectors that will be exempt from certain local turnover thresholds, and therefore the concentrations in which will be notifiable in Turkey regardless of magnitude of Turkish operations.