New Era for Consumer and E-Commerce Legislation

Regulations in Turkey are constantly evolving. Now, amendments to consumer protection and e-commerce legislation are on the agenda.

The Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Protection of Consumers and Certain Laws (Draft Bill) was submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Presidency on 18 July. Draft Bill is currently on the agenda of the TBMM.

These amendments are of particular interest to you, particularly if you are an e-commerce actor or a commercial advertiser. We have compiled the significant amendments in the Draft Bill below.

Consumer Loan and Housing Finance Agreements: As per the Consumer Protection Law (TKHK), consumer loan agreements and housing finance agreements must be in written form. Draft Bill includes amendments to allow these types of agreements to be concluded “at a distance”. Although it could be said that it will bring convenience in terms of the signing process, will it make it more difficult for consumers to review and follow-up, and will it be more difficult for them to present their objections on the points they can object to? Several different criticisms can be made on this issue.

Commercial Advertisements: Draft Bill redefines the lower and upper limits of the administrative fines to be imposed in case of violation of the basic principles regarding commercial advertisements regulated in the TKHK. With these amendments, the authority of the Advertisement Board to impose administrative fines is increased up to 6 million Turkish Liras. According to the 2024 revaluation rate, this amount was 1,100,129 Turkish Liras.

In addition, if the Draft Bill is adopted by TBMM, administrative fines imposed by the Advertising Board will also be within the scope of reconciliation.

Obligation to obtain an electronic commerce license: With recent regulations, electronic commerce intermediary service providers were required to obtain a license, and this regulation was widely discussed and criticized. In these regulations, some exceptions were stipulated in the calculation of the license fee in terms of sales abroad. With the Draft Bill, it is envisaged that additional exceptions regarding license fee calculation be introduced. Accordingly, the following amounts will be deducted from the net transaction volume in the following calendar year, unless the net transaction volume of the electronic commerce intermediary service provider exceeds 20% of the total net transaction volume of electronic commerce intermediary service providers and service providers calculated using the Electronic Commerce Information System data:

• Total amount of sales made abroad through electronic commerce marketplaces,

• Twice the expenditure amount of the investments realized by obtaining an investment incentive certificate from the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

For the years 2024 and 2025, different arrangements are envisaged. In the calculation of the license fee for 2024, it is stated that the 20% limit will not be sought and four times the specified amounts will be deducted from the net transaction volume. In 2025, it is stipulated that three times these amounts will be deducted from the net transaction volume of the electronic commerce intermediary service provider.

You can access the full text of the Draft Bill, here (only available in Turkish).