Turkey: Turkey Introduces Centralized Commercial Electronic Communication Management System

The Amendments to the Regulation on Commercial Communications and Commercial Electronic Messages ("Amendment Regulation")¹ has been published in the Official Gazette of January 4, 2020 to amend the Regulation on Commercial Communications and Commercial Electronic Messages ("Regulation"). The main aim of the Amendment Regulation is to introduce "commercial electronic communication management system" ("IYS") which refers to a centralized system that enables obtaining commercial electronic communication (e.g. promotional messages) approvals, use of right to reject such communications and managing complaint processes.

I. IYS System

As per the Amendment Regulation, the Ministry of Trade authorizes an institution for the establishment of IYS. The authorized institution prepares the technical infrastructure for the following: (i) registration of approval and rejection information on IYS, (ii) obtaining approval through IYS, (iii) the use of right to opt-out, (iv) receiving, reporting and management of commercial electronic communication complaints quickly and effectively and (v) the intermediary service providers' use of IYS. According to publicly available information, the authorized institution appears to be an institution named "Ileti Yonetim Sistemi" (https://iys.org.tr/).

Currently, IYS is available for service providers' registration applications². The applications for registration should be made through the application forms provided at the website of IYS³.

II. Registration Requirement

Amendment Regulation stipulates that real persons and legal entities which are willing to send commercial electronic communications must register with the IYS and that commercial electronic communications cannot be sent to the recipients who do not have consent on IYS. Furthermore, service providers notify the opt-out notifications to IYS within three (3) days. Also, recipients may use their right to reject commercial electronic communications through IYS.

III.  Commercial Electronic Communication Approvals

All commercial electronic communication approvals obtained within the scope of the Regulation will be transferred to IYS until June 1, 2020. As of this deadline, IYS notifies the recipients that (i) their approvals are uploaded on IYS, (ii) they have the right to check these approvals until September 1, 2020 and (iii) the approvals will be deemed valid, if recipients do not check these approvals within the specified time period and (iv) recipients may opt-out receiving commercial electronic communications through the IYS. Recipients may check the approvals on IYS until September 1, 2020 and the commercial electronic communications sent as of September 1, 2020 will be considered as approved communications. That said, the Ministry of Trade has the authority to postpone the foregoing deadlines for three (3) months.  

Footnotes

1 See https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2020/01/20200104-2.htm (last accessed on March 19, 2020).

2 See https://iys.org.tr/hizmet-saglayici/basvuru/nasil-yapilir (last accessed on March 19, 2020).

3 See https://iys.org.tr/hizmet-saglayici/basvuru/nasil-yapilir (last accessed on March 19, 2020).

This article was first published in Legal Insights Quarterly by ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law in June 2020. A link to the full Legal Insight Quarterly may be found here

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