Competition Authority Fines Viking Paper 9 Million TL in Settlement Investigation

According to the decision dated April 18, 2024, numbered 24-19/407-M, the investigation regarding whether Viking Kağıt ve Selüloz Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ violated Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition by determining the resale prices of its buyers has been completed.

While the investigation process was ongoing, the settlement proposal presented by Viking Kağıt ve Selüloz Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ was accepted by the Competition Board’s decision dated November 7, 2024, numbered 24-45/1059-451, and the investigation has been concluded through settlement.

In a statement from the Competition Board, the following information was provided: "In this context, Viking Kağıt ve Selüloz Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ has admitted to engaging in actions to determine the resale prices of its buyers, thereby violating Article 4 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition. As a result of concluding the investigation through settlement, a 15% reduction was applied to the administrative fine, resulting in a penalty of 9,073,292.11 TL imposed on Viking Kağıt ve Selüloz Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ.

Viking Kâğıt operates in the cleaning products market with brands such as Lily, Terra, Senso, Pufla, Select, Select Nature, and Green4u, producing and selling toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, wet towels, wet wipes, cologne, tissue boxes, and pocket tissues.

As is known, with the amendment to the fifth paragraph of Article 43 of Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition by Law No. 7246 dated June 16, 2020, the settlement process introduced into competition law allows the Board to initiate settlement procedures at the request of the parties or ex officio, taking into account the procedural benefits of a fast termination of the investigation and any differences of opinion regarding the existence or scope of the violation."