The Turkish Supreme Court annuls the Competition Authority’s decision to impose a fine on a manufacturer of personal and home care products for resale price maintenance and clarifies that RPM cases require an element of "coercion" or "incentive" (Henkel)

This case summary includes an analysis of the 13th Chamber of the Council of State’s reversal (E. 2021/969, K. 2021/2654, 06.07.2021) of Ankara Regional Administrative Court’s judgment (E. 2020/394, K. 2020/2451, 23.12.2020). Ankara Regional Administrative Court upheld the Turkish Competition Board’s (“Board”) decision (18-33/556-274, 19.09.2018) in which the Board imposed a hefty fine on Türk Henkel Kimya San. ve Tic. A.Ş. (“Henkel”) based on the grounds that it had determined the resale prices of its "beauty and personal care products'' and "laundry and homecare products”. The Board imposed an administrative fine against Henkel in 2018 for the alleged resale price maintenance (“RPM”) practices. Upon Henkel’s appeal, both the first instance administrative court and the appellant