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An independent regulatory agency is a public authority with independence from other bodies in any other branches of the state, autonomy and regulatory competence that operate in sensitive spheres of public life such as the protection of competition, supervision of capital markets and regulation of liberalized services of general economic interest.

The existence of independent regulatory agencies is justified by the complexity of certain regulatory and supervisory tasks that require expertise, the need for rapid implementation of public authority in certain sectors as well as the drawbacks of political interference in the operation of markets.

The first such agency in the history is the Interstate Commerce Commission established in the USA by the Congress in 1887. This example was followed by others first in the same country, then in Europe and finally in less-developed countries (usually through economic reforms carried out under advice or pressure from the advanced countries and IGOs).

Some independent regulatory agencies perform investigations and if necessary fine the relevant parties and order certain measures. However they are in the executive branch of the state. Their actions are open to legal review.

Independent regulatory agencies tend to concentrate on either supervisory or regulatory functions. According to some authors they should focus on the regulatory tasks which are vital and strategic instead of the supervisory ones which are subordinate and therefore could be transferred or even outsourced.

Several other names are also used to refer to independent regulatory agencies. Two examples are independent regulatory commission used in the USA and QUANGO from the UK. The prevalence of different names, that is observed in the literature and even within the same national legal order as in the USA (commission, board) and Turkey (authority, high council, fund), is caused by the facts that agencies have separate legislations of organization instead of a common legislative basis, they have widely different structures and functions and there are different views on their legal status and functions.

Öztürk, E. (2003). Türk İdare Sisteminde Rekabet Kurulunun Yeri ve Diğer Bağımsız İdari Otoritelerle Karşılaştırılması (The Status of the Competition Authority in Turkish Administrative System and Its Comparison with Other Independent Administrative Authorities). Ankara: Rekabet Kurumu.

Independent regulatory agencies in Turkey