Facts
By decision 23-49/940-M of 19 October 2023, the Turkish Competition Board opened an investigation into Trendyol, Hepsiburada and Amazon Türkiye over the automated pricing tools they offered to marketplace sellers. The tools updated a seller's price automatically by reference to benchmarks such as the buybox price or competing offers. The Board examined whether rival sellers using the same tool ended up with aligned prices through the platform, in the manner of a hub-and-spoke arrangement. Trendyol and Hepsiburada offered commitments. Amazon withdrew from the commitment process and said it would switch off the entire tool in Türkiye from 10 February 2025; a later letter of 7 April 2025 gave 11 April 2025 as the switch-off date.
Question
Can an automated pricing algorithm that a marketplace offers to its sellers become the vehicle for an anticompetitive agreement or concerted practice under Article 4 of Law No. 4054, even where the competing sellers have no direct contact with each other? In answering that question the Board looked at the vertical nature of the platform-seller relationship, whether use of the tool was mandatory, whether sellers could configure their own rules, and whether the algorithm was rule-based or learning-based.
Decision
On 3 October 2024 the Board closed the investigation against Trendyol (24-40/950-409) and Hepsiburada (24-40/951-410) by making their commitments binding. Trendyol undertook not to make the tool mandatory, to remove the “match the buybox price” option, not to treat use of the tool as a factor in the buybox algorithm, and to report to the Authority for three years. On 18 April 2025 the Board decided unanimously that Amazon had not infringed Article 4, although the case team had recommended an infringement finding and a fine. It relied on the optional nature of the tool, the absence of any meeting of minds among sellers, sellers' ability to set their own rules, and the rule-based (not self-learning) design of the algorithm.
Why it matters
The Board's reasoning gives express weight to whether a pricing algorithm is rule-based or learning-based, which suggests that self-learning pricing systems could be assessed differently in future. The commitment decisions show that platforms can close an investigation without a fine by changing the options their algorithms offer and the criteria their ranking systems use. In the Amazon decision the Board departed from the case team's view and required evidence of an actual meeting of minds among sellers.
Related stages
The 26 July 2023 decision 23-33/633-213, fining Trendyol for manipulating its ranking algorithm in favour of its private-label products, is a separate case.