The meeting was held at the central building of the Authority under the chairmanship of Ahmet Algan, Deputy Chairman of the Competition Board.
Algan stated that an investigation was opened upon the allegation that the enterprises operating in the MDF and particle board sector violated the Law on the Protection of Competition by acting collusively in the tenders for the sale of wood-based products organized by the General Directorate of Forestry (OGM).
The representative of the investigation committee also stated that the enterprises operating in the MDF and particle board sector, in order to determine the allegation in question, are: Kastamonu Entegre Ağaç Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Kastamonu Entegre), Kronospan Orman Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ (Kronospan), Yıldız Çamsan Entegre Ağaç Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ (Çamsan Entegre), Divapan Entegre Ağaç Panel Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Divapan) and Vezirköprü Forest Products and Paper Industry. He noted that an investigation is being carried out against the Joint Stock Company (Vezirköprü).
The representative stated that the conciliation process carried out with Kastamonu Entegre, Kronospan, Çamsan Entegre, Çamsan Ordu, Divapan and Vezirköprü within the scope of the investigation was terminated by conciliation procedure, and stated that the ordinary investigation process was being carried out in terms of Yıldız Entegre.
The representative stated that as a result of the investigations, it was concluded that Yıldız Entegre Ağaç Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ acted in collusion with its competitors in the wood sales tenders organized by GDF and violated the relevant law article, that it could not benefit from individual exemption due to the conditions not being met within the scope of the law in question, and that an administrative fine should be imposed accordingly.
"A transparent market where people can predict each other"
Yıldız Entegre representative also pointed out that the company was included in the file later, that the process started independently of the company, and that the enterprises whose process ended with a compromise within the scope of the investigation did not send any messages to Yıldız Entegre employees.
Pointing out that Yıldız Entegre's approach to the tender and the reality of the sector are different from the practice in the investigation report, the representative stated that tenders are not the priority supply source for the company, that the company has a more suitable supply source, and that if the tender is entered, it will enter into tenders with a predominance of beech wood.
The representative emphasized that the company's association with the tenders was based on "gossip" and "guesswork" and said that the tenders were a negligible amount for their company and that the company was not involved in the design of any tender process.
Stating that iron and steel activities are included in the company's turnover, the representative said:
"We are not involved in any tender sharing. If someone were to share tenders one day, we would not only receive 23 tenders from these tenders, we would receive a much larger amount of these tenders. We do not need to purchase because we have an alternative and cheap supply source. There is no document obtained from us, we do not transmit any information to anyone. There is no trace or sign of these, and they have no economic logic. There is transparency in this sector, there are many elements that ensure transparency. Where the guarantees are obtained, how they are received, where others can or cannot enter. "There are places where you can get common information about the issue. First, you can predict who behaves how in the tenders over time. Secondly, you can estimate the costs for everyone. Because of this, many of our predictions have not been accurate in this sense, but I would like to remind you that we are in a transparent market where people can predict each other."
The Board will announce its final decision regarding the investigation within 15 days. If the decision is taken sooner, it will be announced on the Competition Authority's website.
