ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law is proud to announce that Ms. Çiğdem Gizem Okkaoğlu has joined its competition law team of 48 specialized competition lawyers as of the beginning of September 2021.

Ms. Okkaoğlu holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University (2015), a BA degree in Economics from Anadolu University (2018) and an LLB (Law) from Ankara University (2019). She is currently working on her LLM degree in Private Law at Ankara University.

Ms. Okkaoğlu has worked in the Turkish Competition Authority for about four and a half years between 2016 and 2020 as a competition expert and rapporteur, and she was working at an international law firm until now since her departure from the TCA in 2020. She took part in numerous dawn raids and dealt with many antitrust cases as a case handler, which included various types of horizontal and vertical agreements, abuse of dominance claims, and exemptions / negative clearance applications for cases such as Roche – Novartis, wheat flour, fertilizer, meal cards, Ankara orthodontic instruments and Henkel. She also handled complex domestic and international merger cases including Phase I and II analyses with remedies, such as Lesaffre – Dosu. She has worked on various legislative instruments with regard to competition advocacy issues, such as the laws and public implementations on retailers / waste / food card sectors.

Following her departure from the Turkish Competition Authority in 2020 after four and a half years of service at the Turkish Competition Authority, she was working in the competition law and regulation department of an international law firm in Turkey.

Ms. Okkaoğlu has published numerous papers in national and international publications as below and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences:

  • (2021) “Rekabet Hukuku Kapsamında Dijital Pazarlara ilişkin Güncel Tartışmalara Genel Bir Bakış” (An Overview of the Current Discussions in Competition Law on Digital Markets), Üstad Dergi, vol. 13
  • (2021) “Dijital Piyasalara Etkin Müdahale: Türkiye için Çıkarımlar” (Effective Intervention in Digital Markets: Implications for Turkey), Üstad Dergi, vol. 12
  • (2020) “The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on digital platforms: Benefits seem to outweigh harms”, Network Industries Quarterly Turkey, vol. 1, no.2
  • (2020) “Yoğunlaşma Kontrolünde Büyük Veri” (Big Data and Merger Control), Expert Thesis, Turkish Competition Authority
  • (2020 ) “OECD Background Note by Turkey on Consumer Data Rights and Competition”, https://one.oecd.org/document/DAF/COMP/WD(2020)55/en/pdf, May 25, 2020
  • (2020) “Rekabet Hukuku Kapsamında Fiyat Dışı Bir Rekabet Unsuru Olarak Kişisel Verilerin Korunması” (Data Protection as a Non-Price Parameter of Competition), Competition Law Seminar Series, Oniki Levha Yayınları
  • (2020) Presentation entitled “Rekabet Hukuku Kapsamında Fiyat Dışı Bir Rekabet Unsuru Olarak Kişisel Verilerin Korunması” (Data Protection as a Non-Price Parameter of Competition), Istanbul Bilgi University, Center for Competition Law, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVi_pkFASYA , April 16, 2020
  • (2019) Presentation entitled “Pay-for-Delay Agreements in Turkish Pharmaceutical Sector”, OECD Headquarter, Paris, February 26, 2019
  • (2019) “Competition Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Sector: The Case for Turkey in Light of the Turkish Pharmaceutical Sector Report”, OECD RCC Newsletter Issue No:13, p. 16-19

ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law is confident that Ms. Çiğdem Gizem Okkaoğlu will be an invaluable addition to its specialized competition law team.

Gönenç Gürkaynak, Esq.,

Founding Partner

On behalf of ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law

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