Competition Policies in the Digital Age Workshop Organized

"Competition Policies in the Digital Age Workshop", aimed at discussing emerging regulatory trends and new-generation competition challenges in a rapidly evolving world was hosted by the Turkish Competition Authority on June 26, 2026 in Ankara. Held with the distinguished participation of Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat, the Workshop brought together academics, public institutions and organizations, non-governmental organizations and industry stakeholders to discuss the impact of digital transformation on competition policies. The workshop, which addressed the most current issues in competition policy, provided a multidimensional assessment of the impact of digitalization on the global competition landscape, the rise of artificial intelligence, regulatory approaches to digital markets and Türkiye's policy perspective in this area.

The Workshop commenced with the opening remarks of the President of the Turkish Competition Authority Mr. Birol Küle. Noting that digitalization has fundamentally transformed economic structure and competitive dynamics, Mr. Küle emphasized the importance of developing competition policies in a way to be able to adapt to this transformation. Afterwards, the Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat stated that the digital economy has made a significant contribution to Türkiye's economic growth potential and underscored that the healthy development of the digital trade ecosystem can be ensured through a fair and effectively functioning competitive environment. Mr. Bolat stated that the Turkish Competition Authority has developed strong and significant expertise through its work on digital markets in recent years and emphasized that at a time when artificial intelligence technologies are becoming increasingly widespread, data-driven business models are gaining power and digital platforms are playing a more decisive role in economic life, policies and practices that strengthen trust in digital trade, support the protection of fair competition, enhance the competitive power of entrepreneurs and SME's in digital markets and foster innovation will be maintained with determination.

Following the opening remarks, the Workshop proceeded to its first session. Moderated by the Vice President of the Turkish Competition Authority Ferhat Topkaya, the session titled "The Future of Regulation in Digital Markets: Ex-Ante Intervention and Ex-Post Approaches" featured Assoc. Prof. of Law at Galatasaray University Faculty of Law Zeynep Ayata, Assistant Professor of Law at İstanbul University Faculty of Law Mustafa Halil Çonkar, Apple Head of Public Policies and Government Affairs, Türkiye and Eurasia Esra Köni, Meta Director of Public Policy for Türkiye and Azerbaijan Sezen Yeşil, Yandex Search and AI General Manager Sedat Öztürk as speakers. The session provided a comprehensive discussion of ex-ante and ex-post intervention models in digital markets, the adaptation of competition law to the digital economy, the impact of artificial intelligence on competition policies and different regulatory approaches.

The second session of the program continued under the title "Next-Generation Competition Issues in Digital Markets," moderated by the Chief Consultant of the Authority Esin Aygün. The session featured Assistant Professor of Law at TOBB University of Economics and Technology Faculty of Law Alptekin Köksal, Trendyol Head of Regulations Hatice Yavuz, iLab Director of Public Affairs Burak Taştan, Sahibinden Product Development and Management Deputy General Manager Bora Biçer and the Founder and CEO of Midas Egem Eraslan as speakers. During the panel, emerging new competition issues in digital markets including algorithmic pricing practices, data-driven competition concerns, the development of digital platform ecosystems, dark patterns, and talent acquisitions were addressed in depth. Policy and regulatory options suitable for changing market conditions were also discussed.

The final session of the workshop was held under the title "Competition Dynamics in the Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem," moderated by the Head of Supervision and Enforcement Department I Selvi Kocabay. During the session, the General Director of Public Artificial Intelligence at the Presidency's Cybersecurity Directorate Dr. Osman Gazi Güçlütürk, Customer Success Lead at Microsoft Europe South Multi Country Cluster Cavit Yantaç, Innova Deputy General Manager of Technology Solutions Erkan Dilaveroğlu, Doğuş Executive Vice President and Chief Data and AI Officer Dr. Serhan Yılmaz, Ultralytics Artificial Intelligence Engineer Fatih Çağatay Akyön and Competition Expert Melisa Ağyüz Aydoğdu shared their views and assessments. The impact of generative artificial intelligence and foundation model ecosystems on competition, competition concerns arising from access to strategic inputs such as data, computing power and cloud infrastructure, the structural challenges faced by actors operating across the artificial intelligence value chain, as well as global regulatory approaches and policy recommendations in this field were evaluated comprehensively during the session.

One of the highlights of the workshop was the artificial intelligence application demonstrated following the final session. An artificial intelligence system developed specifically for the workshop by the Information Technologies Department of the Turkish Competition Authority analyzed the discussions in real time throughout the session, following the speakers' contributions, the system compiled the session's key evaluations as a summary and presented it to the audience together with visual and audio content. The said application showcased, in a practical manner, the contribution of artificial intelligence technologies to support meeting management, information analysis, and decision-making processes.

Throughout the workshop, the impacts of digitalization, artificial intelligence, and platform economies on competition policy were examined comprehensively with contributions from the representatives of the academia, the public and the private sector. The sessions, held with the contributions of experts from diverse disciplines, provided a multifaceted discussion of emerging current competition issues in digital markets, international regulatory trends and policy recommendations for Türkiye. The workshop organized by the Turkish Competition Authority was considered to have served as a platform that contributed to the Competition Policies in the Digital Age Study conducted by the Turkish Competition Authority, provided a basis for strengthening cooperation among institutions, and made a significant contribution to both academic and sectoral work in this field.