The Trade Ministry has intensified inspections to prevent practices that could disrupt the working of market balance, consumer welfare and supply-demand stability.
Between January and March, a total of 129,327 companies and 15.2 million products were inspected, resulting in fines amounting to 784.6 million Turkish Liras.
During this period, 23,003 individuals and legal entities in sectors such as automotive, stockpiling, real estate, jewelry, excessive pricing, unfair trade practices and payment terms were audited. Of these, 2,155 were penalized with fines totaling 221 million liras.
The General Directorate of Domestic Trade imposed fines of 174.3 million liras for excessive pricing, 19.2 million liras in the real estate sector, 5.1 million liras in automotive and 2.6 million liras in jewelry. Inspections related to commercial electronic communication, working hours and licensed warehouses resulted in fines of approximately 17.5 million liras.
The General Directorate of Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance audited 16,421 individuals and entities in the first quarter, issuing fines of 309.6 million lira to 517 violators. Meanwhile, provincial trade directorates inspected 89,903 firms across the country’s 81 provinces, penalizing 19,050 of them with fines totaling 254 million liras.
The Competition Authority reported that last year, 227 companies were fined a combined 13.2 billion liras. In the first three months of this year, 90 companies operating in information technologies, platform services, food, agriculture and livestock were fined 5 billion liras.
