“But each country makes its own laws, and if Turkish law expressly forbids such behaviour, as alleged, that is a matter for Storytel and the Turkish legal system to address.”
Very little detail on this breaking news story from Turkey, but the gist is that the Turkish Competition Authority is investigating Storytel Turkey Publishing Services Anonim Şirketi for allegedly “preventing competitors from entering the audiobook market.”
Per a Competition Authority statement, and subject to Google Translate for accuracy, the allegation is that Storytel “violated the 4th and 6th articles of the Law on the Protection of Competition No. 4054 by preventing the entry of competitors to the audiobook market through long-term exclusivity agreements with the publishing house and the owners of the works.”
My initial thoughts are that this is going to be a very Turkish legal debate. “Long-term exclusivity agreements” with publishing houses are standard practice for publishing platforms looking to gain a competitive advantage, and hard to imagine Storytel TR is doing this on such a scale that rival payers are being prevented from entering the market.
But each country makes its own laws, and if Turkish law expressly forbids such behaviour, as alleged, that is a matter for Storytel and the Turkish legal system to address.
#audiobooks #Turkeybookmarket #Turkeyaudiobookmarket #Turkeypublishing #StorytelTR
