BİM objects to Competition Board fine: 'Unfair'

The Competition Authority, in a statement yesterday, pointed out that in cases where 'on-site inspection is obstructed or hindered,' an administrative fine of five per thousand of the relevant company's turnover is imposed, and it had issued a 1.3 billion TL fine against the retail chain BİM on the grounds that it obstructed an on-site inspection.

The following statements were included in the announcement made by BİM:

"During the on-site inspection conducted by the Competition Authority at the BİM Birleşik Mağazalar A.Ş. Headquarters on January 14, 2025, it was determined by the Competition Authority that an employee, who was out of the office and on leave due to health issues, had deleted WhatsApp correspondence on their personal phone.

The employee in question does not hold a position in our company that could influence commercial decisions, and they deleted these messages on their own initiative. Our company immediately intervened in the situation; through technical work, the WhatsApp messages were recovered and submitted to the Competition Authority, and it was understood that there was no anti-competitive situation in these messages.

Our company is extremely sensitive and disciplined regarding acting in accordance with the principles of transparency, accountability, and competition. The personal behavior of the employee in question is a behavior that is never accepted by our company, and their employment contract has been terminated immediately.

Despite this, the Competition Authority, by making a determination of 'Obstruction or Hindrance of On-site Inspection' in accordance with Article 16 of the Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition, has imposed an administrative fine of 1 billion 296 million TL against our company, amounting to 5 per thousand of our 2023 gross revenue. If the administrative fine in question is applied with a 25% discount in accordance with the 6th paragraph of Article 17 of Law No. 5326, the fine amount will be 972 million TL."

News Source: 12punto