The competition law practice at ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law remains a market leader, leveraging the experience of its team to provide a comprehensive service to insurers, financial institutions and foreign and local businesses across industries ranging from tech, entertainment, food and medical devices to pharmaceuticals, energy and consumer products. Founding partner and competition law authority Gönenç Gürkaynak heads the practice, bringing expertise to merger control filings, investigations by the Turkish Competition Board and the compliance reporting packages for global clients. K Korhan Yıldırım specialises in such areas as cartel and abuse of dominant position investigations. Öznur Inanılır   is notable for work in merger control and defences in investigations alleging restrictive agreements. Other key figures include Onur Özgümüş and Dilara Yeşilyaprak, who was promoted to counsel in January 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Very skilled and capable team with lots of experience with competition law matters. Easy to collaborate and accessible.’

  • ‘Gonenc Gurkaynak and Eda Duru are very available and responsive and bring high expertise and added value to their clients.’

  • ‘Onur Ozgumus is really responsive, nice, sharp, efficient, very smart, profession and we really enjoy working with him.’

  • ‘Gonenc Gurkaynak is supremely knowledgeable about all aspects of Turkish competition law. Partner Oznur Inanilir is also highly knowledgeable, as is associate Dilara Yesilyaprak.’

  • ‘Founding partner Gönenç Gürkaynak is no doubt the star of the team - extremely well connected within the Turkish competition authority, used to working with international clients, practical and reassuring. His team is quite senior and very efficient. When there is a difficult filing with the Turkish competition authority, ELIG is one of the few firms that we would advise clients to retain in Turkey.’

  • ‘Gönenç Gürkaynak - his knowledge of Turkish competition law but also European competition law is absolutely outstanding. He knows everything! He has very good knowledge about the investigation procedure at the Turkish competition authority. ’

  • ‘The leading Turkish competition practice.’

Key clients

  • Google LLC
  • Allianz Sigorta A.Ş.
  • L’Oréal Türkiye Kozmetik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.
  • Çimentaş İzmir Çimento Fabrikası Türk A.Ş.
  • Société Générale S.A.
  • Mutlu Akü ve Malzemeleri Sanayii Anonim Şirketi
  • Çimsa Çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (a subsdiary of Sabancı Holding)
  • Akçansa Çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (a joint venture of Sabancı Holding and HiedelbergCement)
  • Warner Bros Turkey Film Limited Şirketi (Turkish subsidiary of Warner Bros)
  • Associated British Foods Plc
  • Merck Sharp Dohme İlaçları Ltd. Şti.
  • Tetra Pak AB
  • Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.
  • Medtronic plc
  • UNMAŞ Unlu Mamuller Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.
  • Twitter, Inc.
  • Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.

Work highlights

  • Assisted with the acquisition of the sole control over International Financial Group Limited by Cinven Capital Management.

Lawyers

Hall of Fame
The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.
Leading associates
Leading associates with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Gönenç Gürkaynak

Other key lawyers

Korhan Yıldırım, Öznur İnanılır, Onur Özgümüş, Dilara Yeşilyapra, Eda Duru, Harun Gündüz, Ebru Ince, Kağan Uçar