To register in the Message Management System of Turkey (İYS) have become obligatory for the Service Providers due to the new regulation that came into force on January 4, 2020, which amended the Law on Regulation of Electronic Commerce No. 6563 and the Regulation on Commercial Electronic Messages.

Within the scope of the legislation, all real and legal persons ("Service Provider") are obliged to take the Recipient's consent before sending messages for commercial purposes in electronic environment such as telephone, call center, fax, automatic call machine, smart voice recorder systems, e- mail, short message service, etc. This consent can be obtained in writing or by any means of electronic communication. Consents must be registered to the İYS within 3 business days after receiving, unregistered consents are considered invalid. Except in exceptional cases, commercial electronic messages cannot be sent to the Recipients whose consent is not registered to İYS.

Various administrative fines will be imposed on those who act against the law:

  • In case of sending commercial e-messages without consent: 1.000-5.000 TL, (If I sent to more than one person, tenfold penalty will be applied.)
  • In case the commercial e-message does not comply with the consent received: 1.000-5.000 TL,
  • In case of the commercial messages to be sent regarding the electronic orders do not comply with the legislation, 1.000-10.000 TL,
  • In case it is not clear for whom the commercial communication is made: 1.000-10.000 TL,
  • If the messaging is not stopped within three days despite the rejection notification by the Recipient: 2.000-15.000 TL,
  • If the information requested by the Ministry of Commerce is not provided in order to monitor and evaluate the development of electronic commerce 5.000-20.000 TL.

Commercial messages can be sent without Recipient's consent in following cases:

  • If the commercial message recipient is a trader or tradesman, prior approval is not required. However, if they refuse to receive messages explicitly, electronic messages cannot be sent until their consent is obtained.
  • If the Recipient provides contact information for the purpose of contacting him/her, consent is not required for commercial electronic messages for the changes, use and maintenance of the goods or other services provided.
  • There is no need for consent from the Recipient in cases where there is an ongoing subscription, membership or partnership status between the Service Provider and the Recipient, and notifications regarding money collection, debt reminding, information update, purchase and delivery or similar situations in which the Service Provider is legally obliged to provide information.
  • It is not obligatory to obtain consent for information purposes by companies engaged in brokerage activities in accordance with the legislation regarding the capital market.

It is important that the commercial messages should be in scope of the consent. A consent cannot be requested by sending a commercial electronic message to the Recipient's electronic contact address. According to the regulation, the data categories that should be registered in the İYS until December 1, 2020 at the latest are as follows:

  • Recipient's contact address (phone number or e-mail address),
  • Date of the consent,
  • Communication channel (call / message / e-mail)
  • Consent source

The consents will be invalid if not entered into the system until December 1, 2020. All consents will become valid if Recipients do not refuse them on İYS until January 16, 2021.

When sending the message, the Service Provider must include an accessible contact address, such as a customer service number, a text message number, or a URL address specific to the rejection notice, provided by the İYS so that the Recipient can report a rejection. The Service Provider should enable the rejection notices to be made through the same communication channel which the commercial electronic message was sent, easily and free of charge. The Service Provider should stop sending commercial electronic messages to the Recipient within 3 days after receiving the rejection notice; otherwise, as stated above, administrative fines of up to 2.000 - 15.000.-TL will be applied.

The Service Provider is responsible for the protection of the data it obtains during İYS procedures within the framework of the Turkish Personal Data Protection legislation and to take necessary measures to prevent illegal access and data processing.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.