Specialized Product Safety Rules for E-Commerce

The Regulation on Market Surveillance and Inspection of Products Made Available to the Market Through the Means of Electronic Communication Tools (“Regulation”) was published on the Official Gazette on October 30, 2024 to enter into force on April 1, 2025.

The Regulation covers all products made available or kept on the market by means of remote communication tools, which is defined as “any means or media such as letter, catalog, telephone, fax, radio, television, electronic mail message, text message, internet, which allows the establishment of a contract without physical confrontation”. Accordingly, the Regulation sets forth (i) the main principles to be followed during placing products on the market, (ii) information required to be provided during the sales made through the remote communication tools and (iii) the obligations of market players.

1. The Main Principles to be Followed During Placing Products on the Market

As a general principle, the Regulation requires products to be placed on the market to comply with the relevant technical regulations or the General Product Safety Regulation (“PS Regulation”). Accordingly, products offered for sale by the economic operators through remote communication tools, including products such as promotions for the realization of the sale, are deemed to be placed on the market if the sale is targeted at end-users residing in Turkey.

In this regard, the Regulation designates the following conditions, where economic operators who fulfill at least one of the conditions will be deemed to direct their activities to Turkey and target end users in Turkey:

• ▪️ Providing Turkish language option,

• ▪️ Having the option to display the prices in TRY,

• ▪️ Accepting payment in TRY,

• ▪️ Including the option to make deliveries to Turkey,

• ▪️ Physical delivery to consumers and end users in Turkey,

• ▪️ Registration of the domain name in geographical areas where shipment to Turkey is possible.

In addition to compliance with the relevant technical regulations and the PSR, the Regulation also requires that an economic operator to be established in Turkey in order for a product within the scope of the legislation included in the list published on the website of the Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”) to be placed on the market through remote communication tools. Accordingly, such economic operators include the following respectively:

• ▪️ The manufacturer residing in Turkey,

• ▪️ If the manufacturer is not residing in Turkey, the importer,

• ▪️ The authorized representative residing in Turkey and appointed in writing by the manufacturer,

• ▪️ If there is no economic operator residing in Turkey, the performance service provider residing in Turkey.

2. Information to be Provided During the Sales Made by Means of Remote Communication Tools

The Regulation sets out the information required to be provided during the sales made through the electronic communication tools. Accordingly, economic operators, as defined as “manufacturer, authorized representative, importer, distributor or other natural or legal persons who are responsible for the manufacture, placing on the market or putting into service of products under the relevant technical regulation” are obliged to include the following information in the sales announcement in a way that is easily visible and clearly legible.

• ▪️ The economic operator’s name and registered commercial title, postal address and e-mail address,

• ▪️ The manufacturer’s name, registered commercial title or trademark and postal address and e-mail address, where the manufacturer is residing in Turkey,

• ▪️ If the manufacturer is not residing in Turkey, the importer’s name, registered commercial title, the postal address and e-mail address,

• ▪️ If the manufacturer nor importer are residing in Turkey, the name, registered commercial title, the postal address and e-mail address of the authorized representative residing in Turkey appointed in writing by the manufacturer for the products covered by the legislation included in the list published on the website of the Ministry,

• ▪️ If there is no authorized representative residing in Turkey, the name, registered commercial title, the postal address and e-mail address of the performance service provider residing in Turkey for the products covered by the legislation included in the list published on the website of the Ministry,

• ▪️ Warning and safety information in Turkish and signs of conformity specified in the technical regulations that must be attached to the product or product packaging or documents accompanying the product,

• ▪️ All information enabling the description of the product, including a photograph of the product, its type and other information to identify the product.

3. Obligations of Market Players

In addition to the novel obligations of the economic operators, the Regulation underlines that the general obligations of economic operators under the Law No.7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations (“PSL”), PS Regulation and the Framework Regulation on Market Surveillance and Inspection of Products (“Framework Regulation”) are also applicable to products placed or kept on the market through remote communication tools. In this regard, the Regulation (i) authorized representatives, (ii) performance service providers and (iii) intermediary service providers.

• Obligations of Authorized Representatives

The Regulation provides a definition for authorized representatives, where the authorized representatives must be (i) a natural or legal person residing in Turkey and (ii) appointed in writing by the manufacturer to fulfil on its behalf certain obligations of the manufacturer under the PSL, the Framework Regulation, the Regulation and other relevant legislation.

The Regulation requires authorized representatives to affix their (i) name, (ii) registered commercial title or trademark, and (iii) contact information including their portal address on the products that are within the scope of the legislation included in the list published on the website of the Ministry, in an indelible form that is easily visible, clearly legible and does not mislead the end user. Where it is not possible to affix such information on the products, then they must be affixed to the packaging of the product or in a document accompanying the product.

• Obligations of Performance Service Providers

The Regulation defines performance service providers as a natural or legal person who offers at least two of the storage, packaging, addressing and transport services without taking ownership of the product during its commercial activities. It should be noted that the definition excludes postal services, parcel or dispatch services, other postal services or freight forwarding services. The Regulation further states that performance service providers are considered as distributors and they are held responsible for the distributors’ obligations under the relevant technical regulation, unless their activities affect the safety of the product, and they are defined as a manufacturer, importer or authorized representative under relevant legislation.

In this regard, the Regulation stipulates that a performance service provider will be considered as a manufacturer and held responsible for the manufacturer's obligations under the relevant technical regulations; if a performance service provider takes one of the following actions:

• ▪️ Affixes its own name and trademark on the product or

• ▪️ Modifies the product in a way that affects its conformity with the requirements of the relevant technical regulations or

• ▪️ Affect the safety of the product by its activities, it is considered to be the manufacturer and is held responsible for the manufacturer's obligations under the relevant technical regulations.

The Regulation further foresees the following obligations for performance service providers regarding the products that are within the scope of the legislation included in the list published on the website of the Ministry, in the absence of a manufacturer, importer or authorized representative resident in Turkey:

• ▪️ Affix their (i) name, (ii) registered commercial title or trademark, and (iii) contact information including their portal address on the products in an indelible form that is easily visible, clearly legible and does not mislead the end user, (where it is not possible to affix such information on the products, they must be affixed to the packaging of the product or in a document accompanying the product),

• ▪️ Where required the relevant technical regulations, (i) confirm that the declaration of conformity or declaration of performance and the technical file have been, (ii) maintain the declaration of conformity or declaration of performance to be submitted to the competent authority for the period specified in the relevant technical regulation and (iii) submit the technical file to the competent authority upon request of the competent authorities,

• ▪️ Provide all necessary information and documents showing the conformity of the product to the competent authority in Turkish or in another language acceptable to the competent authority in line with the request of the competent authority, it provides all necessary information and documents showing the conformity of the product to the competent authority in Turkish or in another language acceptable to the competent authority.

• ▪️ Inform the competent authority in cases where it learns or should have known that the product carries a risk,

• ▪️ In case of nonconformity, cooperate with the competent authority based on the request of the competent authority to take the necessary corrective action immediately to eliminate the nonconformity.

• ▪️ Cooperate with the competent authority upon the request of the competent authority or spontaneously to eliminate the risk carried by the product, in cases where it learns or should have known that the product carries a risk and if it is not possible to eliminate the nonconformity.

• Obligations of Intermediary Service Providers

The Regulation sets forth that intermediary service providers are real or legal persons who provide electronic commerce environment for the economic and commercial activities of others. Accordingly, intermediary service providers are considered to be an economic operator if they are also the manufacturer, importer, authorized representative, distributor or performance service provider of a product, in addition to providing an electronic commerce environment for the sale of such product.

Furthermore, the Regulation stipulates the several obligations on intermediary service providers related to content removals. In this regard, intermediary service providers are obliged to fulfill the content removal and other requests from competent authorities within 24 hours and immediately inform the relevant authority about the outcome of the procedures carried out. If the content is not removed within 24 hours or if it is detected that the same product is again in the systems despite the removal of the content within 24 hours, the competent authorities may decide to block access to the content related to the non-conforming product and notify this decision to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority for implementation. Moreover, in cases where intermediary service providers become aware of a nonconformity of a product available on the market, they must take steps to remove or prevent access to the content of the product in the electronic commerce environment immediately and inform the competent authority. The competent authorities may also request intermediary service providers to prevent the infringing content from appearing on their online interfaces in the future. Moreover, the competent authorities may

In addition to those above, intermediary service providers must also fulfil the following obligations:

• ▪️ Design the online interface in such a way that economic operators can provide the necessary information to be included in the sales announcement and that end-users can easily access this information,

• ▪️ Determine a product safety contact point to meet the requests from competent authorities and to ensure that end-users are able to contact them directly and quickly in matters related to product safety,

• ▪️ Notify the contact information of the product safety contact point to the competent authorities and ensure that end-users can easily access the product safety contact point through its online interface,

• ▪️ In case of a recall of products, convey the information in the announcement made by the economic operator regarding the recall to all end-users who have purchased the products through their online interface via e-mail message without delay and publish the same information through their online interface,

• ▪️ Keep a regular record of the name, registered commercial title or trademark and contact information of the previous and, if any, the next economic operator in the supply chain and other information that will facilitate the tracking of the product and keep such records for at least 10 years from the date the product is placed on the market through its online interface or placed on the market and submit them upon request of the competent authority.