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The Turkish Competition Authority announced on Friday that it has imposed a total fine of ₺237.13 million ($5.6 million) on 17 companies, most of which operate in the pharmaceutical sector, for violating the country’s competition law.
The investigation found that several firms engaged in anti-competitive conduct by entering into "no-poach" agreements—arrangements not to hire each other’s employees—or by sharing competitively sensitive information about future salaries and benefits in the labor market.
Among the fined companies were global pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk, along with several domestic drugmakers such as Sanovel, Santa Farma, and Ilko.
Sanovel received the largest fine, at ₺79 million ($1.88 million), followed by Pfizer with ₺20 million ($476,746), Novartis and Novo Nordisk with ₺19 million each, and Santa Farma with ₺17 million. AstraZeneca was fined ₺15 million, while Ilko and Sanofi were ordered to pay ₺13 million and ₺12 million, respectively. Smaller penalties were imposed on companies including Adeka, Amgen, Arven, Berko, and Servier.
The Competition Board stated that some companies had disrupted fair competition in the labor market by agreeing not to employ each other’s personnel. Others were found to have exchanged forward-looking information on salaries and employee benefits, breaching the law on the Protection of Competition, which prohibits collusion or coordination that may restrict competition.
The authority emphasized that such practices undermine both competition and employee mobility in the sector, leading to artificial constraints on wage growth and recruitment opportunities.
The penalties form part of the regulator’s broader crackdown on anti-competitive conduct in Türkiye’s pharmaceutical market, one of the country’s most tightly regulated industries. The authority has increased scrutiny in recent years amid growing concerns over pricing, supply chains, and employment practices.
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