April 7, 2026
The Turkish Competition Authority has announced the launch of a comprehensive sector-wide investigation into the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, citing growing concerns over its impact on market dynamics and competition.
According to an official statement published on its website, AI is no longer just a technological advancement but a transformative force that is reshaping competition rules, altering market power structures, and significantly influencing economic balances.
Rapid Growth Raises New Competition Questions
The authority highlighted that rapid developments—particularly in generative AI—are creating a new competitive landscape shaped by access to data, computing power, and platform ecosystems. In this evolving environment, the way competition emerges, operates, and is controlled is being fundamentally redefined.
To better understand these changes, the authority has initiated a broad investigation aimed at assessing the overall impact of AI on markets and identifying potential competition risks at an early stage.
Concerns Over Market Concentration
Officials emphasized that the AI value chain—from infrastructure to model development and applications—is multi-layered and strategic. Access to critical inputs such as large datasets, computing capacity, technical expertise, and financing plays a decisive role in determining market power.
Companies that gain early and extensive access to these resources may establish vertically integrated structures across multiple layers of the value chain, strengthening their dominance and potentially distorting competition.
Risks of Barriers and Market Lock-In
The statement warned that early advantages in AI could lead to:
- Increased barriers to market entry
- User lock-in within specific ecosystems
- Restricted access to essential inputs for competitors
These factors could significantly shape market structures and limit fair competition.
Big Tech Integration Under Scrutiny
The authority also noted that the integration of AI technologies into the services of large digital platforms presents additional concerns under competition law.
Such integration could enable practices like self-preferencing, exclusionary conduct, tying, restricted access, and higher switching costs—affecting not only current market conditions but also future innovation and competition dynamics.
Scope of the Investigation
As part of the review, the authority will examine:
- The structure of the AI ecosystem, particularly foundation models
- Relationships across different layers of the value chain
- Access conditions to key inputs such as data and computing power
- Interactions between major tech firms and startups
- The impact of data and computational resources on competition
The findings are expected to help policymakers detect structural trends and potential anti-competitive risks early, and to guide future regulatory measures aimed at preserving competitive markets.
Ongoing Monitoring
The authority stated that it will continue to closely monitor developments in the AI sector and evaluate their implications for Turkey’s economy and competitive landscape.
Source: Patronlar Dünyası/ Prepared by: İlayda Gök