The Regulation Amending the Electricity Market Licensing Regulation Published by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority

On August 17, 2024, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority amended with the Regulation Amending the Electricity Market License Regulation (“Amendment Regulation”), introducing important innovations in the regulation of changes to be made in the shareholding structure of legal entities holding pre-licenses.

The important line headings in the Amendment Regulation are as follows:

• Previous regulation, legal entities open to public under certain conditions, facilities established within the scope of international agreements, changes in foreign shareholders, public offering of shares, exercise of pre-emptive rights, indirect and direct share ownership changes, privatization process, share changes that do not constitute a change in control, legal entities belonging to public institutions and organizations, share acquisitions within the scope of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, use of foreign resources, intra-family share transfers, The new regulation requires Board approval for all changes in shareholding structure except for publicly traded legal entities, facilities established under international agreements, public offering of shares, exercise of pre-emptive rights, privatization process, savings deposit insurance fund and renewable energy resource areas projects.
• Changes made without this approval will result in the cancellation of the pre-license in accordance with the Electricity Market Law No. 6446.
• Additionally, while the previous regulation limited oversight to specific direct or indirect changes in ownership, the amendment expands the scope of oversight by requiring approval for all changes in ownership structure, except for the specified exceptions, thereby increasing control over market activities.
• Furthermore, while the previous regulation provided for unspecified sanctions in cases of non-compliance with the ownership change approval process, the new regulation explicitly stipulates the cancellation of the pre-license in case of non-compliance.
• With the Amending Regulation, the supervision and accountability expected from pre-licensees has been increased.

The amendment, published in the Official Gazette on August 17, 2024, came into effect on the date of publication.

You can access the full text of the Amendment Regulation this link (only available in Turkish).